P - PEOPLE FILES
- Doug Pagitt - John Painter - Andrew Palau - Samuel G Parkison - Robin A Parry - Christina Patterson - Paige Patterson - Dan Patrick - Alyssa Paulson - Nancy Pearcey - Bob Pearle - Carlton Pearson - Terri Cope Pearsons - Josh Pease - Gregory Perkins - Tony Perkins - Bob Perry - Jackie Hill Perry - Joel Perttula - Jesse Lee Peterson - Steve Pettit - Rob Philips - Rick Pidcock - Chuck Pierce - Duncan Edward Pile - Karen Pimpo - Everett Piper - Vance Pitman - Jerry Pokorsky - Huron A. Polnac Jr - Linda Barnes Popham - Sarah Posner - Sam Powell - Richard Pratt - Fred Price - Natalie Prieb -
doug pagitt
Doug Pagitt is an American author, pastor, social activist. He is Co-founder and Executive Director of Vote Common Good, a national political non-profit dedicated to inspiring, energizing, and mobilizing people of faith to engage in civic life. In 2000, Doug was founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch, a Holistic Missional Christian Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also founded and remains active with the Greater Things Foundation, a charitable non-profit for empowering and fostering more beautiful, inclusive, and life-giving communities.
Doug Pagitt Files
Beyond voting, citizens can seek to understand the attractiveness of Christian nationalism to some of their fellow citizens. Christian nationalism promises a return to a time when their comfort and certainty were privileged. This promise appeals to a fear that cannot be overcome by shame. It must be overcome by love.
Christian people, all across the political spectrum, need to remember the words of Scripture, "Perfect love drives out fear."
--Doug Pagitt (w/Chris Jones); Newsweek; 9.8.22
Christian people, all across the political spectrum, need to remember the words of Scripture, "Perfect love drives out fear."
--Doug Pagitt (w/Chris Jones); Newsweek; 9.8.22
A coalition of evangelical Christian leaders is condemning the role of "radicalized Christian nationalism" in feeding the political extremism that led to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
In an open letter, more than 100 pastors, ministry and seminary leaders, and other prominent evangelicals express concern about the growing "radicalization" they're seeing, particularly among white evangelicals.
The letter notes that some members of the mob that stormed the Capitol carried Christian symbols and signs that read, "Jesus Saves," and that one of the rioters stood on the Senate rostrum and led a Christian prayer. The letter calls on other Christian leaders to take a public stand against racism, Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories and political extremism.
The letter reads, in part:
"We recognize that evangelicalism, and white evangelicalism in particular, has been susceptible to the heresy of Christian nationalism because of a long history of faith leaders accommodating white supremacy. We choose to speak out now because we do not want to be quiet accomplices in this on-going sin.""People from our very communities called people to this action in the days before, unleashed them into the Capitol, and then chose to baptize that action in the name of Christ," Pagitt said. "And this is our time where we need to stand up."
--Wyoming Public Media: Evangelical Leaders Condemn 'Radicalized Christian Nationalism' 1.24.21
In an open letter, more than 100 pastors, ministry and seminary leaders, and other prominent evangelicals express concern about the growing "radicalization" they're seeing, particularly among white evangelicals.
The letter notes that some members of the mob that stormed the Capitol carried Christian symbols and signs that read, "Jesus Saves," and that one of the rioters stood on the Senate rostrum and led a Christian prayer. The letter calls on other Christian leaders to take a public stand against racism, Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories and political extremism.
The letter reads, in part:
"We recognize that evangelicalism, and white evangelicalism in particular, has been susceptible to the heresy of Christian nationalism because of a long history of faith leaders accommodating white supremacy. We choose to speak out now because we do not want to be quiet accomplices in this on-going sin.""People from our very communities called people to this action in the days before, unleashed them into the Capitol, and then chose to baptize that action in the name of Christ," Pagitt said. "And this is our time where we need to stand up."
--Wyoming Public Media: Evangelical Leaders Condemn 'Radicalized Christian Nationalism' 1.24.21
Doug Pagitt Files
"I am not trying to assign to people something that they didn't want assigned to them — that they were moving and marching in Christ's name.....People from our very communities called people to this action in the days before, unleashed them into the Capitol, and then chose to baptize that action in the name of Christ.....And this is our time where we need to stand up." --Doug Pagitt 2.24.21
"I am not trying to assign to people something that they didn't want assigned to them — that they were moving and marching in Christ's name.....People from our very communities called people to this action in the days before, unleashed them into the Capitol, and then chose to baptize that action in the name of Christ.....And this is our time where we need to stand up." --Doug Pagitt 2.24.21
Doug Pagitt Files
This Christian nationalist fight to “save America” is far from over. In September, a poll commissioned by Politico found that 61 percent of Republican respondents supported the idea of declaring the United States a Christian nation. And an October survey from the Pew Research center found that even while political leaders are embracing the Christian nationalist label with never-before-seen fervor, more than half of all U.S. adults have not heard or read anything about Christian nationalism. An additional 16 percent claimed they didn’t know enough about the movement to take a position.
That needs to change. And that’s why this preacher gave up his pulpit for a big orange bus in the run-up to the midterms. That bus took me and other leaders from my group, Vote Common Good, from Dallas, to Grand Rapids, to Columbus to Pittsburgh, educating voters about the dangers of Christian nationalism. We were joined by hundreds of church leaders at rallies urging people of good faith and conscience to vote against candidates who stand for political violence and Christian nationalism.
In Pennsylvania, we rallied alongside Democrat Josh Shapiro — who won last Tuesday’s gubernatorial race — to denounce Mastriano’s full-fledged Christian nationalist campaign. In Columbus, a woman who has voted Republican all of her life attended one of our training sessions on how to identify and confront Christian nationalism. Afterward, she told me she is terrified by her party’s embrace of the idea.
Slowly, politicians are starting to realize the stakes. But with the 2024 elections looming, Democrats can’t afford to delay any longer — they need to call out Christian nationalism now.
As an evangelical pastor, I believe in the power of spirituality. I also believe in the power of speaking out against those who use spirituality for their own political gain, rather than the common good of all people. It’s time Democrats started making some noise. --Doug Paggit; Op-Ed in The Hill; 2.24.21
That needs to change. And that’s why this preacher gave up his pulpit for a big orange bus in the run-up to the midterms. That bus took me and other leaders from my group, Vote Common Good, from Dallas, to Grand Rapids, to Columbus to Pittsburgh, educating voters about the dangers of Christian nationalism. We were joined by hundreds of church leaders at rallies urging people of good faith and conscience to vote against candidates who stand for political violence and Christian nationalism.
In Pennsylvania, we rallied alongside Democrat Josh Shapiro — who won last Tuesday’s gubernatorial race — to denounce Mastriano’s full-fledged Christian nationalist campaign. In Columbus, a woman who has voted Republican all of her life attended one of our training sessions on how to identify and confront Christian nationalism. Afterward, she told me she is terrified by her party’s embrace of the idea.
Slowly, politicians are starting to realize the stakes. But with the 2024 elections looming, Democrats can’t afford to delay any longer — they need to call out Christian nationalism now.
As an evangelical pastor, I believe in the power of spirituality. I also believe in the power of speaking out against those who use spirituality for their own political gain, rather than the common good of all people. It’s time Democrats started making some noise. --Doug Paggit; Op-Ed in The Hill; 2.24.21
Doug Pagitt Files
As soon as you let yourself think that God is distant and that we need to work to maintain our connection to God, then we're turning faith into a deal, a transaction. We bob and weave throughout our lives, trying to keep up with this transaction we've made. We begin to tell people that you have to follow these steps, or those steps, to be properly purified and to be connected with God most purely.
That's an unfortunate pinch point in Christianity-and it just doesn't make sense to so many people today. Maintaining that transaction just doesn't feel good in our lives. Most of my friends who've left Christianity have left over this issue. They want a faith, or a spiritual expression of life, that doesn't amount to a transactional deal. I've heard from early readers of this book that their first reaction is-relief. They feel relief to realize that it doesn't have to be this way.
--Doug Paggit; Day 1; 3.20.15
That's an unfortunate pinch point in Christianity-and it just doesn't make sense to so many people today. Maintaining that transaction just doesn't feel good in our lives. Most of my friends who've left Christianity have left over this issue. They want a faith, or a spiritual expression of life, that doesn't amount to a transactional deal. I've heard from early readers of this book that their first reaction is-relief. They feel relief to realize that it doesn't have to be this way.
--Doug Paggit; Day 1; 3.20.15
Doug Pagitt Files
"The preposition in is a profoundly meaningful word. And flipping the order of words from 'God is in all' to 'all is In God' is more than a semantic move. It offers a clearer, more honest, more biblical understanding of who God is and who we are In God"
--Doug Pagitt; Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God. 2015
"The preposition in is a profoundly meaningful word. And flipping the order of words from 'God is in all' to 'all is In God' is more than a semantic move. It offers a clearer, more honest, more biblical understanding of who God is and who we are In God"
--Doug Pagitt; Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God. 2015
john painter
John Painter (born 22 September 1935 in Bellingen, New South Wales) is an Australian academic, New Testament scholar, and Christian theologian specializing in Johannine literature. He is currently Professor of Theology at Charles Sturt University in Canberra.
andrew palau
For more than 25 years Andrew Palau has played a key role in the ministry of the Luis Palau Association. He has been instrumental in building the LPA model for citywide outreach as an evangelist, director, and key team leader. He has guided campaigns, led church relations efforts, trained thousands of believers in friendship evangelism, and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ in person to millions of individuals around the world through evangelistic festivals. Andrew’s festivals have brought him and the Palau Association in partnership with thousands of churches in cities throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States. His weekly radio broadcasts are heard by millions of people on thousands of radio outlets in dozens of countries. He is also the author of multiple books, including Secret Life of a Fool, a retelling of his personal journey to faith in Christ, and What is Christmas?, a groundbreaking evangelistic book published in China in 2012.
June 19, 2023: GodTV: OVER 13,000 PEOPLE HEARD THE GOSPEL DURING WEEK-LONG EVANGELISTIC FESTIVAL
Andrew and Wendy Palau led a week-long evangelistic festival at Klamath County in Oregon. They hosted outreaches and gatherings for the locals in the area including local schools and prisons. It was then concluded with a massive gathering at the Klamath County Fair Grounds on May 27 where over 9,000 came to hear the Gospel.
Andrew and Wendy Palau led a week-long evangelistic festival at Klamath County in Oregon. They hosted outreaches and gatherings for the locals in the area including local schools and prisons. It was then concluded with a massive gathering at the Klamath County Fair Grounds on May 27 where over 9,000 came to hear the Gospel.
Andrew Palau Files
From Press Release:
Buenos Aires Outreach Sees 20,000 Gospel Responses
JANUARY 19, 2023 - BUENOS AIRES — It had been 14 years since the Luis Palau Association held their last citywide campaign in Buenos Aires. The main avenue was shut down through town. All 16 lanes. And the crowd stretched out for 7 full blocks.
It proved to be the largest festival in the history of their team. It was also one of the largest gatherings in the history of Argentina.
Last November they returned to Argentina’s capital city for a festival that saw at least 20,000 Gospel responses. GNA spoke to evangelist Andrew Palau about what it was like to continue this legacy in his father’s home country.
The Luis Palau association saw at least 20,000 people respond to the Gospel during their recent outreach campaign in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Palermo Park in the capital city for a two day festival November 18-19, which followed several other outreach events leading up to that weekend.
It had been originally scheduled for 2019 with Luis Palau who has since passed away. Andrew gave an emotional response when asked how his father would’ve felt about the remarkable response they saw.
Andrew Palau – Evangelist LPEA:
Pure joy to think that everything he dreamed of, that the church would love each other and the leaders would stay together and it would truly be something that is all about Jesus Christ, it’s awesome to see it. And you know it’s humbling when you look at those that went before you, the generation before us we’re in awe of them.
Palau went on to highlight how special it was to join their follow up teams as people responded to accept Christ into their lives:
Andrew Palau:
The Friends of the Festival, we call them, will go into the crowd, so to see that sea of hands raised. It’s awesome. And often I’ll have my friends and we’ve been working hard over the years in preparation. They’re often in the front counselling and going one on one. And when I can, I like to jump down and counsel myself because that’s when you see the work of the Lord in an individual.
And preparations are now well underway for the ministry’s next festival which will take place in San Jose in Costa Rica in March.
About the Luis Palau Association
For more than 25 years Andrew Palau has played a key role in the ministry of the Luis Palau Association (LPA), which was started by his father, evangelist Luis Palau. Andrew has been instrumental in building the LPA model for citywide outreach as an evangelist, director, and key team leader. He has guided campaigns, led church relations efforts, trained thousands of believers in friendship evangelism, and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ in person to hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world through evangelistic campaigns. Andrew’s festivals have brought him and the Palau Association into partnership with thousands of churches in cities throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States of America. Andrew’s weekly radio broadcasts, in partnership with his wife, Wendy, are heard by millions of people on thousands of radio outlets around the world. He is also the author of The Secret Life of a Fool, a retelling of his personal journey to faith in Christ, and What is Christmas?, a groundbreaking evangelistic book published in China in 2012.
CONTACT: Jay Fordice, jay.fordice@palau.org
Buenos Aires Outreach Sees 20,000 Gospel Responses
JANUARY 19, 2023 - BUENOS AIRES — It had been 14 years since the Luis Palau Association held their last citywide campaign in Buenos Aires. The main avenue was shut down through town. All 16 lanes. And the crowd stretched out for 7 full blocks.
It proved to be the largest festival in the history of their team. It was also one of the largest gatherings in the history of Argentina.
Last November they returned to Argentina’s capital city for a festival that saw at least 20,000 Gospel responses. GNA spoke to evangelist Andrew Palau about what it was like to continue this legacy in his father’s home country.
The Luis Palau association saw at least 20,000 people respond to the Gospel during their recent outreach campaign in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Palermo Park in the capital city for a two day festival November 18-19, which followed several other outreach events leading up to that weekend.
It had been originally scheduled for 2019 with Luis Palau who has since passed away. Andrew gave an emotional response when asked how his father would’ve felt about the remarkable response they saw.
Andrew Palau – Evangelist LPEA:
Pure joy to think that everything he dreamed of, that the church would love each other and the leaders would stay together and it would truly be something that is all about Jesus Christ, it’s awesome to see it. And you know it’s humbling when you look at those that went before you, the generation before us we’re in awe of them.
Palau went on to highlight how special it was to join their follow up teams as people responded to accept Christ into their lives:
Andrew Palau:
The Friends of the Festival, we call them, will go into the crowd, so to see that sea of hands raised. It’s awesome. And often I’ll have my friends and we’ve been working hard over the years in preparation. They’re often in the front counselling and going one on one. And when I can, I like to jump down and counsel myself because that’s when you see the work of the Lord in an individual.
And preparations are now well underway for the ministry’s next festival which will take place in San Jose in Costa Rica in March.
About the Luis Palau Association
For more than 25 years Andrew Palau has played a key role in the ministry of the Luis Palau Association (LPA), which was started by his father, evangelist Luis Palau. Andrew has been instrumental in building the LPA model for citywide outreach as an evangelist, director, and key team leader. He has guided campaigns, led church relations efforts, trained thousands of believers in friendship evangelism, and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ in person to hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world through evangelistic campaigns. Andrew’s festivals have brought him and the Palau Association into partnership with thousands of churches in cities throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States of America. Andrew’s weekly radio broadcasts, in partnership with his wife, Wendy, are heard by millions of people on thousands of radio outlets around the world. He is also the author of The Secret Life of a Fool, a retelling of his personal journey to faith in Christ, and What is Christmas?, a groundbreaking evangelistic book published in China in 2012.
CONTACT: Jay Fordice, jay.fordice@palau.org
samuel g parkinson
Samuel G. Parkison
Though we dare not require perfection from our theologians, we must insist upon ever-increasing purity of heart. Settling for anything less should be unthinkable. If theologians are teachers whom Christ has given to the church, we should expect more from them than a “Dr.” title and a sharp mind.
We need theologians who are strengthening the church from the inside, attending to their own lives with godly earnestness and a willingness to “one another” fellow church members. Purity of heart doesn’t come apart from a clear concern for personal and communal holiness. If purity of heart is a prerequisite for seeing God (Matt. 5:8), the church simply doesn’t need the theologian who won’t pursue holiness in the context of local church membership. He can’t help the church see God because he’s unable himself to see God. --Samuel G. Parkison; Gospel Coalition -2.2.23
We need theologians who are strengthening the church from the inside, attending to their own lives with godly earnestness and a willingness to “one another” fellow church members. Purity of heart doesn’t come apart from a clear concern for personal and communal holiness. If purity of heart is a prerequisite for seeing God (Matt. 5:8), the church simply doesn’t need the theologian who won’t pursue holiness in the context of local church membership. He can’t help the church see God because he’s unable himself to see God. --Samuel G. Parkison; Gospel Coalition -2.2.23
robin a parry
Robin A Parry
"Lamentations never asks, 'Why has this happened to us?' This is because the 'why' is already known—Israel has broken the covenant law. Rather, the anguished questions behind Lamentations are, 'Why punish so severely?' and 'How long until you save?'" -Robin A Parry; Lamentations. The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series. Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Robin A Parry
"The change in the man's attitude found in 3:19-24 has affected the way in which he perceived his situation. It is interesting that now, in this final section, he no longer speaks of YHWH as his enemy but rather as the one who can deliver him from his human enemies. The recovery of hope has not led him to deny that YHWH is the ultimate cause of his distress, but it has led to a shift in emphasis. The focus now is on the immediate cause of his sorrow (his human enemies) and on God as his savior." -Robin A Parry; Lamentations. The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series. Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Robin A Parry
"(Lam) 4:21-22 comes right out of the blue! The tone of chapter 4 has been to focus on the absolutely dire situation in Jerusalem, and by 4:20 the audience is left with the distinct feeling that the end has come. Suddenly, from left field, comes what has the feel of a prophetic oracle proclaiming divine judgment on Edom for its treatment of Judah and an end to Judah's exile."-Robin A Parry; Lamentations. The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series. Grand Rapids and Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
dan patrick
Feb 23, 2023: Rolling Stone: The Christian Nationalist Machine Turning Hate Into Law
Founded in Aug. 2020, NACL is tied to top Christian spiritual and political leaders. The group’s advisory board includes onetime presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — the former governor of Arkansas and father of the new governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders — Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, and Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel. (Liberty Counsel is a frequent litigant before the Supreme Court; the head of its ministry, Rolling Stone exposed, bragged of praying with SCOTUS justices.)
Founded in Aug. 2020, NACL is tied to top Christian spiritual and political leaders. The group’s advisory board includes onetime presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — the former governor of Arkansas and father of the new governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders — Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, and Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel. (Liberty Counsel is a frequent litigant before the Supreme Court; the head of its ministry, Rolling Stone exposed, bragged of praying with SCOTUS justices.)
christina patterson
Christina Patterson
“Our thoughts lead to our beliefs, which lead to our actions, which lead to the quality of our lives. Our thoughts have too great of an impact for us not to guard them and keep our mind on God's will.” -Christina Patterson
“Our thoughts lead to our beliefs, which lead to our actions, which lead to the quality of our lives. Our thoughts have too great of an impact for us not to guard them and keep our mind on God's will.” -Christina Patterson
paige patterson
May 5, 2023: Baptist News Global: Paige Patterson praises independent Baptists for focus on evangelism
Paige Patterson has written an online post extolling the virtues of independent Baptists and praising them for “keeping the main thing the main thing.”
That “main thing,” the former Southern Baptist Convention seminary president said, is evangelism.
Paige Patterson has written an online post extolling the virtues of independent Baptists and praising them for “keeping the main thing the main thing.”
That “main thing,” the former Southern Baptist Convention seminary president said, is evangelism.
alyssa Paulson
July 7, 2023: Christian Post: Evangelical Covenant Church drops congregation over LGBT 'policies and practices'
Alyssa Paulson, an elder at Awaken who helped write the congregation policy, responded to the vote in a Facebook reel, saying she was “not here to change anyone’s mind on how they view marriage.”
“I am here to tell you that I believe we are better together. That our differences make us stronger, that we can live without fences and instead center ourselves around the wells of unconditional love in Jesus,” Paulson continued.
Alyssa Paulson, an elder at Awaken who helped write the congregation policy, responded to the vote in a Facebook reel, saying she was “not here to change anyone’s mind on how they view marriage.”
“I am here to tell you that I believe we are better together. That our differences make us stronger, that we can live without fences and instead center ourselves around the wells of unconditional love in Jesus,” Paulson continued.
nancy pearcey
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Oct 8, 2021: Christian Post: George Barna shares 4 ways Christian parents can combat media’s influence in children’s lives
Moderated by David Closson, the director of the Family Research Council’s newly launched Center for Biblical Worldview, the panel included George Barna, director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, Joseph Backholm of the Center for Biblical Worldview and Nancy Pearcey, professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University. Apr 7, 2015: Christianity Today: Meet the Women Apologists
Cultural apologetics has emerged in the midst of this discussion. It draws from the best of classical apologetics and yet meets objections by expanding in new, innovative directions. The program at HBU is leading this project. Among the faculty are Nancy Pearcey, author of Total Truth and Saving Leonardo; Mary Jo Sharp, director of the ministry Confident Christianity; Melissa Cain Travis, a national speaker and author for Apologia Press; Kristen Davis, an engineer who runs DoubtLess Faith Ministries; and Ordway, an Inklings scholar with a PhD in literature. They’re thinkers who can pull their weight and evangelists motivated by a deceptively simple objective: Tell people the Good News. And for those who already know that, equip them to “give the reason for the hope that you have.” |
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Bob Pearle
July 24, 2023: Christian Index: Gainesville pastor Javier Chavez visits Peru’s National Congress
During the meeting, the congressman extended a formal invitation to Birchman’s pastor, Bob Pearle, to address the Peruvian Congress and have a private audience with President Dina Boluarte. Cameron Bowman, Birchman’s minister of young adults and outreach, accepted the invitation on the pastor’s behalf.
During the meeting, the congressman extended a formal invitation to Birchman’s pastor, Bob Pearle, to address the Peruvian Congress and have a private audience with President Dina Boluarte. Cameron Bowman, Birchman’s minister of young adults and outreach, accepted the invitation on the pastor’s behalf.
carlton pearson |
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Jan 15, 2022: Christian Post: Pastor Michael Todd admits wiping spit on brother’s face in church was ‘too extreme and disgusting’
Bishop Carlton Pearson, who once led one of the largest churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the 1990s and stirred controversy for declaring there is no Hell, came to Todd’s defense. Pearson is the senior minister of Christ Universal Temple, a large New Thought congregation in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the head of a new Higher Dimensions fellowship in Chicago and an affiliate minister at Tulsa’s All Souls Unitarian Church. He said Todd and his brother are like family to him. Perkins, who in 2015 famously agreed with a guest on his radio show that Hurricane Joaquin might be a sign of God’s wrath over the country’s legalization of same-sex marriage, was forced with his family to flee his own flooded house by canoe last week. The Family Research Council is a conservative Christian lobbying organization formed in 1981 by James Dobson. --Bob Allen @ Baptist News Global Aug, 22, 2016 May 2013: Reform Magazine: Bishop Carlton Pearson interview: Hell and high water
Born in the San Diego ghetto, Bishop Carlton Pearson, will next year be the subject of a major film. He became a superstar preacher, built a megachurch from nothing, gained a huge, devoted following, and rubbed shoulders with the most powerful political and religious leaders in the United States. But of course that’s not why Hollywood is interested. Or, to be fair, why I am. The most compelling part of his story is what happened next. Bishop Carlton Pearson started asking the wrong theological question, and the whole thing came crashing down. The film is to be called Heretic, and the heresy that cost him everything is that he stopped believing in hell. |
March 19, 1953: Carlton Pearson was born in San Diego, California.
May 2013 Reform Magazine interview:
Pearson: "The way I look at it now, you can experience God and never know God or even know that you’re experiencing God. The way to know God is to know yourself. If you’re created in the image and likeness of God then you’re the closest to God you’re ever going to get. So study yourself – investigate, interrogate, excavate your own soul – even if something has died in you, do an autopsy. Don’t tell me the disease, tell me what caused the disease that brought death to your relationship with you. And that God expresses itself to you, through you, and as me. We’re all inextricably connected. And the rest of it is mystery. Embrace that. But the more I get to know me the more I know God." Interview by Praise Houston: Pearson: "I questioned my faith in the concept of “eternal damnation” and torment in a presumed customized torture chamber called hell. I wondered how a supposed “loving God” whose mercy endured forever would or could sponsor such an obscene place. I could not reconcile, “The love” of God and such a vulgar concept. Through in depth biblical and historical research and deeper self and soul reflection I discovered that our traditional concept of hell was both flawed, misinterpreted, irrelevant and against the moral character of Infinite Love. 1 John 4:18 says: There is no fear in love; but perfect (mature) love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love." |
Terri Copeland Pearsons |
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Apr 7, 2016: Youtube: 2016 European Prayer Conference - Terri Copeland Pearsons - 03/03/2016
Mar 2, 2015: Kenneth Copeland Ministries: The Ministry of the Prophet Throughout the Bible, God used prophets to reveal His plans to the Body of Christ. Join Pastors George and Terri Pearsons on today’s Believer’s Voice of Victory. Learn the significance of the ministry of the prophet, and the purpose of prophetic words in your life. Nov 8, 2007: Across The Great Divide: Former Employees Say of Ken Copeland's Ministry: This isn't God.
There will be what we call "passing out the kool aid" tomorrow morning at a Chapel conducted by John Copeland, CEO, Kellie Copeland (daughter) and head of the EMIC [Eagle Mountain International Church, Copeland's ministry] Children's Ministry, and George & Terri Pearsons (KC daughter & son in law, pastors of EMIC) to have Communion over all of these reports and allegations. These Chapels are nothing more than to "rally the troops" and assure the employees that KCM is above board and full of Integrity. Terri Copeland Pearsons, eldest daughter of internationally known minister Kenneth Copeland, first discovered the adventures of prayer as a little girl praying at her grandmother’s side. Terri and her husband, George Pearsons, serve as Senior Pastors of Eagle Mountain International Church (EMIC) at Kenneth Copeland Ministries, where they have pastored for over two decades. They have an international commission that takes them all over the world. Since 1995, Terri has ignited the fires of prayer at EMIC through Prayer School and through a dynamic network of prayer groups; she has brought life into the prayers of believers worldwide. Terri has supported her father’s commission to take the Word of God from the top of the world, to the bottom, and all the way around, since attending Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the late 1970s. For 13 years she developed the Believer’s Voice of Victory (BVOV) television broadcast as its first producer, helping establish Brother Copeland as a forerunner in television ministry. Terri and George have two grown children. Their son, Jeremy Pearsons, his wife Sarah and children, Justus and Jessie Grace, travel in ministry together, teaching believers of all ages to hold fast to the spirit of faith. Sarah Hart Pearsons is also a worshipper and singer-songwriter. Their daughter, Aubrey Oaks is a gifted vocalist who ministers frequently at EMIC, and she travels alongside her mother, ministering with her. Her husband, Cody is a pilot and is preparing for the ministry to which God has called him. They have two daughters, Eiley and Kayelin. |
December 31, 1976: George Pearsons asked Terri Copeland to marry him.
January 3, 1993: Pearson & her husband, George, became pastors of Eagle Mountain International Church
January 2017: Pastor George and Pearsons received a mandate from Brother Copeland to serve as the Executive Leaders of Kenneth Copeland Ministries
January 9, 2023
Jan 23, 2023
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josh pease
May 29, 2023: Aol: Duggars docuseries investigates 'insidious organization behind the family.' Here's why its producer hopes Jim Bob and Michelle tune in.
“Gothard turned every father into a cult leader and every home into an island," Josh Pease, a pastor and journalist, said in the doc.
“Gothard turned every father into a cult leader and every home into an island," Josh Pease, a pastor and journalist, said in the doc.
gregory perkins
July 14, 2023: Christian Headlines: J.D. Greear Supports National African American Fellowships' Challenge of SBC's Ban on Woman Pastors
The NAAF, a network of over 4,000 predominantly African American churches affiliated with the SBC, has challenged the recent vote. In a July 3 letter to SBC President Bart Barber, NAAF president Gregory Perkins explained that while he agrees with the denomination's theological stance, he noted that many SBC black churches permit women to serve as pastors as long as they do so under male leadership.
The NAAF, a network of over 4,000 predominantly African American churches affiliated with the SBC, has challenged the recent vote. In a July 3 letter to SBC President Bart Barber, NAAF president Gregory Perkins explained that while he agrees with the denomination's theological stance, he noted that many SBC black churches permit women to serve as pastors as long as they do so under male leadership.
"Many of our churches assign the title 'pastor' to women who oversee ministries of the church under the authority of a male Senior Pastor, i.e., Children's Pastor, Worship Pastor, Discipleship Pastor, etc To disfellowship like-minded churches who share our faith in Jesus Christ, our belief in the authority of Scripture, our mandate to carry out the Great Commission, and our agreement to give cooperatively based upon a local-church governance decision, dishonors the spirit of cooperation and the guiding tenets of our denomination."
--Gregory Perkins; July 3 letter to SBC President Bart Barber 7.14.23
--Gregory Perkins; July 3 letter to SBC President Bart Barber 7.14.23
tony perkins
Anthony Richard Perkins (born March 20, 1963) is an American politician and evangelical lobbyist. He is president of the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative policy and lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C. Perkins, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, was previously a police officer and television reporter, served two terms as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002. On May 14, 2018, he was appointed to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Tony Perkins
"We now have an opportunity in the United States to see this issue back into the hands of lawmakers and the people. That's what we're seeing happening in states across the nation. And our message is very clear: there's still a federal role. There is now an opportunity to protect the unborn in this country, and this is a responsibility of elected officials at every level, whether it's a county level, the city level the state level, or the federal level......We have the opportunity to get back to that point where we protect unborn human life. And I'm optimistic we'll get there."
-Tony Perkins; Newsmax; 6.23.22
Tony Perkins
"Now is the time for every God-fearing Christian in America to draw a bright red cultural line. You cannot be a spectator watching this and remain in step with the Lord and His word.
In this, President Biden is right: There is a battle for the soul of this nation and its children, and we need to realize that it has eternal significance and consequences.
Frankly, we live in a time that’s unprecedented in all of human history. Never has the world seen this type of attack on children and on the rights of parents to protect them, as God has intended us to do — to teach them, to train them, to nurture them.
The time has come for parents to rise up and reclaim their rightful role. In other words, “There is no retreat from here. You must fight where you stand.”
--Tony Perkins; Newsmax; 6.20.23.
In this, President Biden is right: There is a battle for the soul of this nation and its children, and we need to realize that it has eternal significance and consequences.
Frankly, we live in a time that’s unprecedented in all of human history. Never has the world seen this type of attack on children and on the rights of parents to protect them, as God has intended us to do — to teach them, to train them, to nurture them.
The time has come for parents to rise up and reclaim their rightful role. In other words, “There is no retreat from here. You must fight where you stand.”
--Tony Perkins; Newsmax; 6.20.23.
Tony Perkins
“I am grateful for the vision and courage of Pat Robertson. My first formal introduction into the world of government and political action was in the wake of his run for president and the creation of the Christian Coalition. It was a shaping experience to serve as chairman of the coalition in Baton Rouge many years ago. Pat’s vision and legacy as a man of God and a man of action will live on and continue to inspire.”
--Tony Perkins; Newsmax; 6.8.23.
Oct 7, 2016: Religion News Service: Questions for Falwell, Perkins, Franklin Graham et al.
Can you live with yourself as an apologist for this man?
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has donated $100,000 for flood relief to a Louisiana Baptist church where Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is serving as interim pastor.
The Republican nominee and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, stopped at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church during an Aug. 19 visit to Baton Rouge, La., to survey damage and meet with victims and relief workers a week after a storm flooded much of central Louisiana. Also in attendance was Franklin Graham, president of the Christian international relief agency Samaritan’s Purse.
Can you live with yourself as an apologist for this man?
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has donated $100,000 for flood relief to a Louisiana Baptist church where Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is serving as interim pastor.
The Republican nominee and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, stopped at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church during an Aug. 19 visit to Baton Rouge, La., to survey damage and meet with victims and relief workers a week after a storm flooded much of central Louisiana. Also in attendance was Franklin Graham, president of the Christian international relief agency Samaritan’s Purse.
Apr 7, 2015: Christian Examiner: 21 days of prayer launched about Supreme Court decision on marriage
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is asking Christians to start today to pray and fast through April 28 when the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of marriage.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is asking Christians to start today to pray and fast through April 28 when the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of marriage.
Jan 30, 2015: Right Wing Watch: Tony Perkins: Gays 'Persecute' Christians By Making Them View Photos Of Gay People On Facebook
-Family Research Council President Tony Perkins invited his colleague Peter Sprigg on to “Washington Watch” yesterday to discuss an Idaho state legislative committee’s decision not to include protections for LGBT people in a proposed nondiscrimination law.
June 28, 2013: WBRZ: Tony Perkins temporarily at pulpit in Baton Rouge
Perkins is temporarily leading the congregation since Pastor Dennis Terry left. Terry made controversial statements from the pulpit during the presidential campaign last year
-Family Research Council President Tony Perkins invited his colleague Peter Sprigg on to “Washington Watch” yesterday to discuss an Idaho state legislative committee’s decision not to include protections for LGBT people in a proposed nondiscrimination law.
June 28, 2013: WBRZ: Tony Perkins temporarily at pulpit in Baton Rouge
Perkins is temporarily leading the congregation since Pastor Dennis Terry left. Terry made controversial statements from the pulpit during the presidential campaign last year
May 9, 2014: Baptist Press: HGTV cancels show; stars called 'anti-gay'
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said of HGTV’s tweet announcing the cancelation, “That’s a lot of cowardice packed into 140 characters.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said of HGTV’s tweet announcing the cancelation, “That’s a lot of cowardice packed into 140 characters.”
bob perry
Bob Perry
- M.A., Christian Apologetics (Highest Honors), Biola University
- B.S., Aerospace Engineering, United States Naval Academy
- Contributing Editor, Salvo Magazine
- Contributing Writer, Christian Research Journal
- Graduate, Advanced CrossExamined Instructor Academy
- Ambassador Speaking Team, Life Training Institute
- Certified Apologist, Reasons To Believe
- Certified Facilitator, The Truth Project
Bob Perry
If the standard is perfection, then any violation of that standard, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, creates an infinite separation between us and that perfection. Think of it as an infinitely wide canyon where we are on one side and God is on the other. Every religion offers a solution to crossing the divide, but Christianity’s solution is unique.
There are three possible responses to bridging the canyon we create when we rebel against God’s perfect moral standard.
There are three possible responses to bridging the canyon we create when we rebel against God’s perfect moral standard.
- Pretend the bridge isn’t there. This is basically the solution of the eastern and new age religions. People, and pain, and suffering, and rebellion are all just illusions. There is no need to build a bridge across a divide that doesn’t even exist. But it does make one wonder why we all seem to recognize our rebellious behavior if it’s just an illusion.
- We can build the bridge ourselves. This is the idea that we can fix the mend by doing nice things to make up for the bad stuff we’ve done. Some call this a “works-based” theology, where we “work” our way back into God’s good graces. This is the solution offered by every other theistic religion (Judaism, Islam, Mormonism etc.). The problem with that is that the gap we’re tying to mend is infinite. We can work all we want but no human being is going to be able to build a bridge across an infinitely wide chasm.
- God can build the bridge for us. What makes Christianity unique is that we don’t have to build the bridge. God builds it for us. It was the reason he came to Earth. He is the bridge between God and man. His suffering and death on the cross was the infinite payment required to make up for our rebellion. His resurrection sealed the deal.
jackie hill perry
Jan 11, 2023: Christain Headlines: Jackie Hill Perry Denounces the Enneagram, Apologizes for Past Promotion: 'It's Evil'
Christian author and speaker Jackie Hill Perry is denouncing the Enneagram personality test and apologizing for her past promotion of it.
Perry, in a new Instagram story, said she repented to God for her past position.
Christian author and speaker Jackie Hill Perry is denouncing the Enneagram personality test and apologizing for her past promotion of it.
Perry, in a new Instagram story, said she repented to God for her past position.
Jan 6, 2023: Christian Post: Jackie Hill Perry warns Satan trying to destroy 'entire generation of Christians with witchcraft'
Christian author Jackie Hill Perry said Wednesday that too many churches are giving Satan room to “destroy” and leading a generation of Christians to be more comfortable engaging with elements of “witchcraft” rather than engaging with the true power of the Holy Spirit.
The 33-year-old ex-lesbian rapper, author, poet and Bible preacher was among many prominent Christian speakers who spoke at Passion 2023 conference in Atlanta this week. She warned that if ministry leaders don’t lean on the Holy Spirit and the move of God, their ministry becomes ineffective.
Christian author Jackie Hill Perry said Wednesday that too many churches are giving Satan room to “destroy” and leading a generation of Christians to be more comfortable engaging with elements of “witchcraft” rather than engaging with the true power of the Holy Spirit.
The 33-year-old ex-lesbian rapper, author, poet and Bible preacher was among many prominent Christian speakers who spoke at Passion 2023 conference in Atlanta this week. She warned that if ministry leaders don’t lean on the Holy Spirit and the move of God, their ministry becomes ineffective.
joe pertulla
Joe Pertulla
Even an elementary reading of Scripture would lead us to believe we have missed the point of who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him. In the Gospel of Luke is the discourse between Jesus and Peter. After asking the disciples who the crowds thought He was, Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20). Peter responded first, and his answer is short, yet revolutionary: “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). Whether Peter’s answer substantiates the formation of the papacy is beside the point. The point is that Peter had a revelation; he got it. He did not stumble on his answer by some magical formula or intellectual exercise, but by revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit opened his eyes, and Peter was able to see Jesus for who He was: the Messiah, the Savior King, the Son of the Living God. Certainly the depth of this revelation grew throughout his life, but in that initial moment his worldview began a dramatic shift.
Like Peter, we need a Spirit-birthed revelation when it comes to the question of who is Jesus Christ. Namely because “You are the Christ of God” comes difficult to swallow for us who live in the center of consumer culture, where comfort, material wealth, individualism, and image are among our most important pursuits. It has become a norm to equate a relationship with Christ with a life of financial freedom and prosperity. Furthermore, we have been sold a gospel that links God’s best for us or the sign of God’s blessing with a big paycheck. The marketing strategy of today’s Christology has been handcuffed to a checking account with a large ending balance. Can we really say we know who Christ is when we have dissociated suffering and self-sacrifice from following Christ? Following Christ is by no means a call to masochism, but since when has taking up one’s cross (Luke 9:23) been a call to a life of comfort and luxury?
“You are the Christ of God” leaves no room for narcissism. It implies a total shift in our values, pursuits, and what we deem important in life. It demands we realize the supremacy of Christ in every area of our life. When we do, titles, positions, accolades, degrees, and our greatest achievements pale in comparison with the Light of the World. To respond like Peter means a radical shift takes place within our heart; we move from self to servant. This uprising in the human soul becomes the bedrock of our new identity. In that moment of revelation is complete abandonment to self, total surrender to the person of Jesus Christ, and the emergence of childlike faith in our Lord. It propels us to live a life of love and gives us the courage to follow Christ even if it includes poverty and discomfort.
--Joel T. Perttula: Enrichment Journal: Who Do You Say I Am?
Like Peter, we need a Spirit-birthed revelation when it comes to the question of who is Jesus Christ. Namely because “You are the Christ of God” comes difficult to swallow for us who live in the center of consumer culture, where comfort, material wealth, individualism, and image are among our most important pursuits. It has become a norm to equate a relationship with Christ with a life of financial freedom and prosperity. Furthermore, we have been sold a gospel that links God’s best for us or the sign of God’s blessing with a big paycheck. The marketing strategy of today’s Christology has been handcuffed to a checking account with a large ending balance. Can we really say we know who Christ is when we have dissociated suffering and self-sacrifice from following Christ? Following Christ is by no means a call to masochism, but since when has taking up one’s cross (Luke 9:23) been a call to a life of comfort and luxury?
“You are the Christ of God” leaves no room for narcissism. It implies a total shift in our values, pursuits, and what we deem important in life. It demands we realize the supremacy of Christ in every area of our life. When we do, titles, positions, accolades, degrees, and our greatest achievements pale in comparison with the Light of the World. To respond like Peter means a radical shift takes place within our heart; we move from self to servant. This uprising in the human soul becomes the bedrock of our new identity. In that moment of revelation is complete abandonment to self, total surrender to the person of Jesus Christ, and the emergence of childlike faith in our Lord. It propels us to live a life of love and gives us the courage to follow Christ even if it includes poverty and discomfort.
--Joel T. Perttula: Enrichment Journal: Who Do You Say I Am?
JESSE LEE PETERSON
Jesse Lee Peterson (born May 22, 1949) is president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), an American religious nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to a conservative agenda among African Americans.
Aug 24, 2021: Friendly Atheist: Christian Radio Host Slams NY Gov. Kathy Hochul: Women Are "Not Created to Lead"
Right-wing Christian radio host Jesse Lee Peterson who believes it was generally a "big mistake to educate women" is very unhappy that Kathy Hochul is the new governor of New York, having replaced the disgraced Andrew Cuomo, who officially resigned at midnight.
Apr 11, 2015: WND: 'Stupid!': Black activists 'tussle' on Fox News
The other guest was Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny.
Mar 5, 2015: Newsmax: Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson: Don't Trust Slam of Ferguson Cops
The Justice Department's finding of rampant racism in the Ferguson police force is more about the redistribution of wealth and power than it is race, says the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny.
Oct 16, 2014: Z-News Mississippi: The rate of abortion in the African American community will hasten the downfall..
Among them was the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the founder of the Brotherhood Organizations of a New Destiny and a contributing commentator on Fox News. Peterson, who considers himself a friend of Fox show host Sean Hannity, has made a number of controversial statements over the years, including that black racists and guilty white people are responsible for electing President Barack Obama.
Right-wing Christian radio host Jesse Lee Peterson who believes it was generally a "big mistake to educate women" is very unhappy that Kathy Hochul is the new governor of New York, having replaced the disgraced Andrew Cuomo, who officially resigned at midnight.
Apr 11, 2015: WND: 'Stupid!': Black activists 'tussle' on Fox News
The other guest was Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny.
Mar 5, 2015: Newsmax: Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson: Don't Trust Slam of Ferguson Cops
The Justice Department's finding of rampant racism in the Ferguson police force is more about the redistribution of wealth and power than it is race, says the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny.
Oct 16, 2014: Z-News Mississippi: The rate of abortion in the African American community will hasten the downfall..
Among them was the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the founder of the Brotherhood Organizations of a New Destiny and a contributing commentator on Fox News. Peterson, who considers himself a friend of Fox show host Sean Hannity, has made a number of controversial statements over the years, including that black racists and guilty white people are responsible for electing President Barack Obama.
steve Pettit
May 12, 2023: Baptist News Global: The hidden battle in Christian higher education: A conversation with Scott Okamoto
Bob Jones University saw the resignation of their widely beloved president, Steve Pettit, after the board of trustees became so upset about a male student looking “like a gay man” by wearing a wrap coat and about the length of female student’s shorts that they colluded behind Pettit’s back in a scheme involving alternative lawyers, secret meetings, unsecured computers, pictures of women’s bodies without their consent, and an overhaul of the board amidst a Title IX investigation.
Bob Jones University saw the resignation of their widely beloved president, Steve Pettit, after the board of trustees became so upset about a male student looking “like a gay man” by wearing a wrap coat and about the length of female student’s shorts that they colluded behind Pettit’s back in a scheme involving alternative lawyers, secret meetings, unsecured computers, pictures of women’s bodies without their consent, and an overhaul of the board amidst a Title IX investigation.
rob philips |
- Once Delivered -
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Rob Phillips is a Christian apologetics instructor with more than 30 years of experience in preaching, teaching, and training Christians to “earnestly contend for the faith … once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
He serves as director of ministry support and apologetics for the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Phillips has extensive corporate communications experience, having worked for several FORTUNE 500 companies and a national Christian non-profit organization. He also served for 14 years as associate pastor of Bartlesville (Okla.) Southern Baptist Church.
Phillips also has participated in mission projects in Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the Philippines, and Malaysia. He is the author of 12 books, including The Apologist’s Tool Kit, What Every Christian Should Know about the Trinity, and, most recently, What Every Christian Should Know about the Return of Jesus.
He serves as director of ministry support and apologetics for the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Phillips has extensive corporate communications experience, having worked for several FORTUNE 500 companies and a national Christian non-profit organization. He also served for 14 years as associate pastor of Bartlesville (Okla.) Southern Baptist Church.
Phillips also has participated in mission projects in Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the Philippines, and Malaysia. He is the author of 12 books, including The Apologist’s Tool Kit, What Every Christian Should Know about the Trinity, and, most recently, What Every Christian Should Know about the Return of Jesus.
March 1, 2023: ABC News: Christian school that embraced the LGBTQ community is forced to close its doors
As Rob Philips of the Missouri Baptist Convention, a network of 1,800 churches in the state, explained to ABC News, "to embrace desires and behaviors that are outside of scripture is not ultimately loving and caring." Philips said it is unlikely that any of the convention’s member churches would have supported the school.
As Rob Philips of the Missouri Baptist Convention, a network of 1,800 churches in the state, explained to ABC News, "to embrace desires and behaviors that are outside of scripture is not ultimately loving and caring." Philips said it is unlikely that any of the convention’s member churches would have supported the school.
Rob Phillips Files
The non-Reformed (Arminian) position is that God’s election is conditional; that is, God selected specific persons for salvation based on foreseeing their response in belief and repentance to the gospel message. As taught by Jacobus Arminius, after whom Arminianism is named, God’s election to salvation is the election of believers, which means that election is conditioned on faith. Arminius also insisted that God’s foreknowledge of people’s choices did not cause those choices or make them necessary.
--Rob Phillips; The Pathway; What is the Doctrine of Election 3.16.19
--Rob Phillips; The Pathway; What is the Doctrine of Election 3.16.19
Rob Phillips Files
Jesus repeats the Father’s self-description as “the Alpha and the Omega” and applies it to himself in Revelation 22:13. Further, Jesus refers to himself as “Lord” in the Gospels (e.g., Matt. 12:8; John 13:13-14), and eyewitnesses of Jesus ascribe to him the same title (e.g., John 20:28; Acts 2:36). Jesus and the New Testament writers also affirm the deity of Christ, which includes his transcendence and omnipotence. Thus, both the Father and the Son may rightly lay claim to being “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
--Rob Phillips; John’s testimony from Patmos; 12.21.21
--Rob Phillips; John’s testimony from Patmos; 12.21.21
Rob Phillips Files
The writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95 and attributes the words to the Holy Spirit. Together, the psalmist and the voice of Yahweh make it clear that if the punishment for disobedience of the law was severe, then the penalty for rejection of the gospel would be far worse. -Rob Phillips; The Pathway; 4.14.22
The writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95 and attributes the words to the Holy Spirit. Together, the psalmist and the voice of Yahweh make it clear that if the punishment for disobedience of the law was severe, then the penalty for rejection of the gospel would be far worse. -Rob Phillips; The Pathway; 4.14.22
Richard D Phillips |
- Right Now Media -
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Dr. Richard Phillips is the Senior Minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville in South Carolina. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, after graduation, joined the pastoral staff of the church where he came to faith, Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. There, Rick was mentored by the well-known Bible teacher, Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and began his calling as a weekly preacher of God's Word. After serving at Tenth Presbyterian from 1995-2002, Rick accepted the call to be Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church of Coral Springs, Florida. After five years there, he moved to Greenville to serve Second Presbyterian.
His ministry is widely heard on the radio and the internet and Rick is frequently called upon to speak at conferences on the Bible and Reformed theology. He further serves the church by authoring books, with over twenty-five currently in print. Among his many activities, he serves on the board and council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the council of The Gospel Coalition, and the board of trustees of Westminster Theological Seminary. Together with Philip Graham Ryken, he is series coeditor of the Reformed Expository Commentary series. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, Rick holds degrees from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Doctor of Divinity), the University of Pennsylvania (M.B.A.) and the University of Michigan (B.A.). Rick is married to Sharon, and they have five children.
His ministry is widely heard on the radio and the internet and Rick is frequently called upon to speak at conferences on the Bible and Reformed theology. He further serves the church by authoring books, with over twenty-five currently in print. Among his many activities, he serves on the board and council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the council of The Gospel Coalition, and the board of trustees of Westminster Theological Seminary. Together with Philip Graham Ryken, he is series coeditor of the Reformed Expository Commentary series. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, Rick holds degrees from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Doctor of Divinity), the University of Pennsylvania (M.B.A.) and the University of Michigan (B.A.). Rick is married to Sharon, and they have five children.
Apr 1, 2015: Rick Phillips: : Reformation 21: More PCRT Q/A: Does Christian Marriage Require a Civil License? -
Dec 3, 2012: Tullian Tchividjian: Sin Remains: My Response To Rick Phillips
This is nothing more and nothing less than classic Reformed theology, which is why I was surprised that Rick Phillips wrote a critique of my post.
Dec 3, 2012: Tullian Tchividjian: Sin Remains: My Response To Rick Phillips
This is nothing more and nothing less than classic Reformed theology, which is why I was surprised that Rick Phillips wrote a critique of my post.
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"Few of us are eager to proclaim ourselves prophets, and yet is the duty of Christians — and especially of ministers in the church — to serve in the office of prophets, voicing truth from God's Word to the church. Yet there is a great principle of deformation that always opposes this calling, a principle that is especially influential in our own day. This is the idea that it is more important to be winsome, more excellent to be pleasing in the sight of men, regardless of what you do or say, than it is to guard and proclaim the truth of God. Just as in Jeremiah's day, the pragmatists and the lovers of the new and the allies of the world hate and attack the prophetic voice because it unsettles the people. "Your words mark you as a traitor," they said to Jeremiah, and so they still say today.
If there is one certainty in the Evangelical Movement today, it is that those who confront error and compromise, those who deliver bad though biblical news, just like those reformers the prophets, will be cast aide, will be mocked and abused, will be denied access to major media, will be ridiculed and marginalized, just as the prophets of old were put to death with stones and cast into cisterns. Indeed, as Jesus Himself lamented, this treatment of prophets is veritably the spectator sport of deformation history" - Richard D. Phillips, Turning Back the Darkness: The Biblical Pattern of Reformation, (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Il, USA, 2002), p. 107-108 |
The Gospel is relevent; it is always relevent, as long as there are sinners, as long as God sits upon a holy throne of judgment, as long as lawbreakers are under the condemnation and in the bondage of sin. The Gospel is relevent to the ultimate and greatest needs of every man and woman, needs that do not change with the generations or intellectual fashions."
- Richard D. Phillips, Turning Back the Darkness: The Biblical Pattern of Reformation, (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Il, USA, 2002), p. 167 |
rick pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He recently completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com
Rick Pidcock
We all recognize what’s going on here. Sure, there are some nuances between the Duggars, Bill Gothard, IBLP, The Gospel Coalition, fundamentalists, John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, Al Mohler, and all the organizations they write for or denominations they are members of. But they’re not fundamentally different from one another. They’re simply contractors building the same tower, with different assignments.
So let’s stop pretending like the entire tower doesn’t need to be taken down.
--Rick Pidcock; Baptist News Global; How to connect the dots while watching Shiny Happy People 6.7.23
So let’s stop pretending like the entire tower doesn’t need to be taken down.
--Rick Pidcock; Baptist News Global; How to connect the dots while watching Shiny Happy People 6.7.23
Chuck Pierce
Charles D. "Chuck" Pierce serves as President of Global Spheres, Inc. (GSI) in Corinth, Texas. This is an apostolic, prophetic ministry that is being used to gather and mobilize the worshipping Triumphant Reserve throughout the world. Pierce leads an apostolic and prophetic ministry in Corinth, Texas. He is President of Glory of Zion International, Kingdom Harvest Alliance. The three ministries are housed at Global Spheres Center, which also includes Beulah Acres and the Israel Prayer Garden. He continues to gather and mobilize the worshipping Triumphant Reserve throughout the world. The ministries located at Global Spheres Center participate in regional and national gatherings to develop new Kingdom paradigms. Dr. Pierce also serves as a key bridge between Jew and Gentile as the Lord raises up One New Man. He is known for his accurate prophetic gifting which helps direct nations, cities, churches, and individuals in understanding the times and seasons in which we live. He has written numerous best-selling books, and has a degree in Business from Texas A&M, Master’s work in Cognitive Systems from the University of North Texas, and a D. Min. from the Wagner Leadership Institute.
July 11, 2023: Bucks County Beacon: Pennsylvania’s Prayer Warrior: Abby Abildness And Her Dominionist Crusade In The Commonwealth
We initially reported on the NAR in August last year. As stated in that report, some of the NAR’s most prominent leaders include:
We initially reported on the NAR in August last year. As stated in that report, some of the NAR’s most prominent leaders include:
- Cindy Jacobs
- John Benefiel
- Lance Wallnau
- Abby Abildness
- Dutch Sheets
- Chuck Pierce
- Ché Ahn
- Lou Engle
- Jim Garlow
- Steve Strang (Charisma News)
- Steve Shultz (Elijah List).
duncan edward pile
Duncan Edward Pile
The fear of the Lord is a basic acknowledgement of the difference between God and us – he is Almighty, while we are limited in power; he is immortal, but our flesh will die; he is all-knowing, while human perspective is limited. In other words, God is God, and we are not.
This fundamental acknowledgement of the way things are is the beginning of our response to God, who in terms of ability is infinitely above us. The fact of the matter is that God so exceeds us in power, that if he chose to make our lives unbearable, we would have no ability to deny him, or even voice to complain. If God were a cruel, self-important despot, the lives of his creations would be unrelentingly miserable.
It is healthy to dwell on this, from time to time, as a point of context.
-Duncan Edward Pile; Seekers Corner; The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom; 12.21.21
This fundamental acknowledgement of the way things are is the beginning of our response to God, who in terms of ability is infinitely above us. The fact of the matter is that God so exceeds us in power, that if he chose to make our lives unbearable, we would have no ability to deny him, or even voice to complain. If God were a cruel, self-important despot, the lives of his creations would be unrelentingly miserable.
It is healthy to dwell on this, from time to time, as a point of context.
-Duncan Edward Pile; Seekers Corner; The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom; 12.21.21
karen pimpo
After growing up in the greater Chicago area, Karen Pimpo adopted Grand Rapids, Michigan, as her home. She works in project management in the world of marketing communications, helping for-profit and nonprofit organizations tell their stories in a compelling way. Karen is a contributing author to YMI and a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus. Contributing Writer to Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Karen Pimpo Files
Sara lost her mother when she was just fourteen years old. She and her siblings lost their house soon after and became homeless. Years later, Sara wanted to provide her future children with an inheritance that could be passed down from generation to generation. She worked hard to purchase a house, giving her family the stable home she never had.
Investing in a home for future generations is an act of faith toward a future you don’t yet see. God told the prophet Jeremiah to purchase land just before the violent siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 32:6–12). To the prophet, God’s instructions didn’t make a lot of sense. Soon all their property and belongings would be confiscated.
But God gave Jeremiah this promise: “As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them” (v. 42). The prophet’s investment in property was a physical sign of God’s faithfulness to someday restore the Israelites to their homeland. Even in the midst of a terrible attack, God promised His people that peace would come again—homes and property would be bought and sold again (vv. 43–44).
Today we can put our trust in God’s faithfulness and choose to “invest” in faith. Although we may not see an earthly restoration of every situation, we have the assurance that He’ll someday make everything right.
-- Karen Pimpo; Daily Devotions News & Information
Investing in a home for future generations is an act of faith toward a future you don’t yet see. God told the prophet Jeremiah to purchase land just before the violent siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 32:6–12). To the prophet, God’s instructions didn’t make a lot of sense. Soon all their property and belongings would be confiscated.
But God gave Jeremiah this promise: “As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them” (v. 42). The prophet’s investment in property was a physical sign of God’s faithfulness to someday restore the Israelites to their homeland. Even in the midst of a terrible attack, God promised His people that peace would come again—homes and property would be bought and sold again (vv. 43–44).
Today we can put our trust in God’s faithfulness and choose to “invest” in faith. Although we may not see an earthly restoration of every situation, we have the assurance that He’ll someday make everything right.
-- Karen Pimpo; Daily Devotions News & Information
everett piper
May 1, 2023: Raw Story: Far right 'Pastors for Trump' trashed by evangelical leaders for flirting with Christian nationalism
“Dr Everett Piper, the ex-president of a Christian university, in November wrote an op-ed entitled 'It’s time for the GOP to say it: Donald Trump is hurting us, not helping us.' Piper wrote that in the 2022 midterms Trump 'hindered rather than helped the much-anticipated ‘red wave’,' said the report. "Likewise, the Iowa based president and CEO of the Family Leader Bob Vander Plaats, has tweeted about Trump that 'It’s time to turn the page. America must move on. Walk off the stage with class.'"
“Dr Everett Piper, the ex-president of a Christian university, in November wrote an op-ed entitled 'It’s time for the GOP to say it: Donald Trump is hurting us, not helping us.' Piper wrote that in the 2022 midterms Trump 'hindered rather than helped the much-anticipated ‘red wave’,' said the report. "Likewise, the Iowa based president and CEO of the Family Leader Bob Vander Plaats, has tweeted about Trump that 'It’s time to turn the page. America must move on. Walk off the stage with class.'"
Jan 30, 2023: New Republic: Ron DeSantis and His Christian Crusaders Are Stealing Trump’s Religious Thunder
“Donald Trump has to go,” conservative evangelical Everett Piper wrote for The Washington Times in November. “If he’s our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed.” Some of her peers evidently agree. An unnamed evangelical leader told Vanity Fair last month that if Trump wins the GOP nomination, Republicans will “get crushed in the general.” Speaking with The Washington Post, Baptists for Biblical Values founder Brad Cranston disparaged the former president and said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had the “best chance.”
“Donald Trump has to go,” conservative evangelical Everett Piper wrote for The Washington Times in November. “If he’s our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed.” Some of her peers evidently agree. An unnamed evangelical leader told Vanity Fair last month that if Trump wins the GOP nomination, Republicans will “get crushed in the general.” Speaking with The Washington Post, Baptists for Biblical Values founder Brad Cranston disparaged the former president and said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had the “best chance.”
vance pitman
Vance Pitman is the president of North American Mission Board's Send Network. Previously he served as founder and pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, for over 20 years. From a small group of eighteen adults in a living room, Hope's fellowship has grown to 4,000 people in small groups desiring to connect people to live the life of a Jesus follower. Vance holds a bachelor's degree with a major in history and a minor in business management from the University of North Alabama, and a master's degree in divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.
Jan 24, 2023: Sentinel: Dose of Truth
Brown’s remarkable story was used by author Vance Pitman to begin his book, “The Stressless Life.” How we deal with stress is important but tragically, most of us do not handle it well. Consider these troubling statistics from his book and originally reported in a March 2014 Miami Herald article by Deborah Hartz-Seeley entitled, “Chronic Stress Linked to the Six Leading Causes of Death.”
Brown’s remarkable story was used by author Vance Pitman to begin his book, “The Stressless Life.” How we deal with stress is important but tragically, most of us do not handle it well. Consider these troubling statistics from his book and originally reported in a March 2014 Miami Herald article by Deborah Hartz-Seeley entitled, “Chronic Stress Linked to the Six Leading Causes of Death.”
- 43% of adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.
- 75% to 90% of all visits to doctor’s offices are for stress-related ailments and complaints.
- Stress costs American industries more than $300 billion each year through health-care expenses. (That’s more than the gross domestic product of over 160 nations!)
Dec 28, 2022: Baptist Press: NAMB’s 2022 highlights church planting gains, compassion ministry expansion
Southern Baptists and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) had a record-setting church planting year in 2022 as Send Network entered its next phase of ministry during Vance Pitman’s first year as president of NAMB’s church planting arm.
Southern Baptists and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) had a record-setting church planting year in 2022 as Send Network entered its next phase of ministry during Vance Pitman’s first year as president of NAMB’s church planting arm.
Vance Pitman Files
“The size of the church does not determine its significance. The size of the mission determines its significance – and the mission is big. Whether your church runs 10 or 10,000, both have the responsibility for the same mission, which is to locally engage their city with the Gospel and globally engage people and nations with the Gospel........Evangelism and missions is not the highest realm of spiritual service. It’s simply the overflow of Christ in us living His life through us. So if I’m not engaged in missions and evangelism, it’s really not a missions and evangelism issue. It’s an issue of Christlikeness in my life being fleshed out....The first followers of Jesus didn’t have influence. They didn’t have resources. They didn’t have money. They didn’t have education. They didn’t have societal prestige. They had none of that. But what they did have is Christ in them and the empowering of the Holy Spirit manifesting the life of Christ through them – and so every one of them embraced the mission personally. Every one of them embraced [the command] that ‘you will be my witnesses...........We’re not a holy huddle in the midst of a dying world. We’re an army that’s been sent out to accomplish a mission that is so much bigger than us. The reality is, God’s alive and at work in the world and he’s invited us to get in on it with Him.”
--Vance Pitman; Southern Baptist Texan;
--Vance Pitman; Southern Baptist Texan;
Vance Pitman Files
“The size of the church does not determine its significance. The size of the mission determines its significance – and the mission is big. Whether your church runs 10 or 10,000, both have the responsibility for the same mission, which is to locally engage their city with the Gospel and globally engage people and nations with the Gospel.” --Vance Pitman
jerry pokorsky
Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master's in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. Father Pokorsky also serves as a director and treasurer of Human Life International.
Jerry Pokorsky Files
There is a tension between real and imagined fears. Imaginary fears—or those only partially based on reality—are irrational. Jesus feared the Cross in the Garden, and His fears were realistic. In His anguish at the prospect of the Crucifixion, He prayed, “Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me.” We need not deny fears anchored in reality, but we must place our anxieties in service of God’s positive or permissive will. So Jesus concludes, “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Lk. 22:42)
Like Jesus, we tremble at the prospect of the Cross. Yet recent events demonstrate that many of our fears are disproportionate and irrational, making us vulnerable to organized scare tactics.
-Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ; Catholic Culure; 3.18.22
Like Jesus, we tremble at the prospect of the Cross. Yet recent events demonstrate that many of our fears are disproportionate and irrational, making us vulnerable to organized scare tactics.
-Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ; Catholic Culure; 3.18.22
huron a polnac jr
May 29, 1998: Baptist Press: Utah churches face challenges as part of religious minority
South Valley Baptist Church in suburban Salt Lake City is celebrating the completion of its first building, a particularly joyful event considering the mission congregation has existed for six years and has owned its property for five. An extended series of zoning and permit roadblocks to construction compounded a perception of community opposition in an area where Baptists are often considered outsiders.
“It’s just been a constant struggle, and if we hadn’t felt that the Lord had put us out here, we wouldn’t have stayed, humanly speaking,” said Huron A. Polnac Jr., the church’s pastor and a missionary of the North American Mission Board. “But it was interesting … . God has shown us through all of this that he is out here helping us.”
South Valley’s story is somewhat typical of Southern Baptist churches in a state where Mormons make up about 75 percent of the population, much more in some rural areas. Gains, while not impossible, are difficult. The key to success, according to several pastors and state convention leaders, is to understand the environment in which churches are operating and respond accordingly.
South Valley Baptist Church in suburban Salt Lake City is celebrating the completion of its first building, a particularly joyful event considering the mission congregation has existed for six years and has owned its property for five. An extended series of zoning and permit roadblocks to construction compounded a perception of community opposition in an area where Baptists are often considered outsiders.
“It’s just been a constant struggle, and if we hadn’t felt that the Lord had put us out here, we wouldn’t have stayed, humanly speaking,” said Huron A. Polnac Jr., the church’s pastor and a missionary of the North American Mission Board. “But it was interesting … . God has shown us through all of this that he is out here helping us.”
South Valley’s story is somewhat typical of Southern Baptist churches in a state where Mormons make up about 75 percent of the population, much more in some rural areas. Gains, while not impossible, are difficult. The key to success, according to several pastors and state convention leaders, is to understand the environment in which churches are operating and respond accordingly.
linda barnes popham
June 14, 2023: Religion News Service: Ouster of Saddleback and Fern Creek from SBC over women pastors is affirmed
Warren and the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, who leads the Louisville church, each argued that Baptists don’t agree on a range of matters — from Calvinism to COVID-19 — but that hadn’t halted their ability to have a shared commitment to spreading the gospel.
Warren and the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham, who leads the Louisville church, each argued that Baptists don’t agree on a range of matters — from Calvinism to COVID-19 — but that hadn’t halted their ability to have a shared commitment to spreading the gospel.
sarah posner
Sarah Posner is an American journalist and author. She is the author of two books about the American Christian right and has written for The American Prospect, The Guardian, The Nation, Salon, AlterNet, The Atlantic, The Washington Spectator, The Daily Beast, and The Washington Post. She was formerly a contributing writer for Religion Dispatches, writing on the intersection of religion and politics. Her second book, Unholy, was favorably reviewed by the National Catholic Reporter and by writers at Wesleyan University and Washington University in St. Louis.
Sarah Posner
“Some elite Republicans are shocked, shocked, to discover the ugliness lurking in the party. Figures from Peggy Noonan to Colin Powell cannot believe it! The party of the city on a hill is turning vulgar! The only card left in the Republican deck is straight out of the religious right’s 30-year-old battle plan, which the GOP has warmly embraced since Reagan. The Republican Party has validated the religious right’s mythology of Christian nationhood, cowed to its authoritarian litmus test, and made demagoguery not only fashionable but heroic.”
-Sarah Posner, author of “God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters."
-Sarah Posner, author of “God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters."
Sarah Posner
The following is adapted from Sarah Posner's new book, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters out now from PoliPoint Press. (March 2008)
Although over the past two years John Hagee has gained international notoriety for his agitation for an Armageddon war with Iran and his evangelical Zionist project, Christians United for Israel, back in 2000 he was little known outside Pentecostal circles. But for many years Hagee had been a mainstay on religious television, a Word of Faith televangelist with a large and devoted following. Known also as the prosperity gospel, Word of Faith is a nondenominational religious movement with no membership or doctrinal requirements. Its main tenets are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment, especially secularism and humanistic thought, are denounced as the work of Satan.
When preparing to run for president, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush knew that the San Antonio televangelist had a large television audience, which Bush family evangelical adviser Doug Wead estimated at seven million strong. Wead had ghostwritten Hagee's 1997 conspiracy-theory book, Day of Deception, which claims to take "a probing look inside the United States government and expose blatant acts of deception designed to destroy democracy in America." Those "acts of deception," according to the book, were carried out by the Antichrist in his effort to install a "one-world order." Evidence of the one-world order, according to Hagee, includes "the Eastern Establishment," the United Nations, the National Education Association (NEA), the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Illuminati, the imaginary, shadowy group of international financiers that has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Hagee didn't mention that many Illuminati theorists believe in a connection between the Illuminati and the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, to which both Bushes belong. Nor did Hagee, who bills himself as a friend of the Jews, note that Illuminati conspiracies have often included anti-Semitic narratives about Jewish bankers.
In his 1988 campaign biography of Bush Sr., Wead sought to dispel conspiracies that the Bush family was behind the supposed one-world order. But as a ghostwriter, Wead blamed his old boss for trying to bring about what Hagee believes is a satanic, demonic "new world order." Just one year after penning Hagee's conspiracy-laden screed, Wead was pushing Governor Bush and Karl Rove to arrange meetings between the governor and the pastor, and the governor enlisted Hagee to recruit other pastors to sign on to the Bush campaign effort.
Despite accusing Bush Sr. of collaboration with the Antichrist, Hagee delivered for George W. Bush in his 2000 book, God's Candidate for America. In that book, Hagee was unequivocal that Jesus would vote for Bush. "If you are concerned about the sort of America your children and grandchildren will grow up within," Hagee wrote, "then you need to cast your vote for George W. Bush and the Republican Party." God's Candidate, like Day of Deception, decries Satan's work through the United Nations and the NEA but omits references to a new world order created by international financiers and the "Eastern Establishment." Hagee continued to promote the book even after Bush took office, and he wrote a prayer for the president in the post-2004 election edition of Stephen Mansfield's campaign biography, The Faith of George W. Bush.
But for the vitriolic preacher, it wasn't enough to endorse Bush; Hagee had to equate the opposition with evil incarnate. The Democratic Party, Hagee wrote, "is the home of those who advocate homosexuality, abortion, free-sex, unlimited handouts, maximum taxation, little freedom from government control, and toleration of drug use." The GOP, in contrast, "is the home of social conservatives who believe in the sanctity of life, hard work, clean moral living, limited government interference in our lives, minimum taxation, and a return to Bible-based societal values." The book was published by his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television, which that year used tax-exempt donor money to pay Hagee nearly half a million dollars in salary and deferred compensation for sixteen hours of work a week. Hagee earned another $300,000 from his church. But in keeping with the Word of Faith credo that poverty is evidence of insufficient faith, Hagee went on to depict welfare as satanic:
Instead of faith, Satan offers fear; instead of commitment, Satan offers selfish promiscuity; instead of stable home lives, Satan offers multiple divorces. Instead of career and gainful employment, Satan offers laziness and quick-money schemes and gambling. Instead of Christian charity, Satan offers a lifetime on the public dole. God's will for each man and woman is to have positive self-esteem; Satan wants each man, woman, and child to feel insignificant.
Hagee offered up then-Governor Bush's taxpayer-funded, "faith-based initiative" as the best alternative to Satan.The Bush-Hagee alliance possessed a certain cognitive dissonance as so-called compassionate conservatism collided with mean-spirited denunciations of demon possession. Hagee lauded the Republican Contract with America, spearheaded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who later admitted that he was committing adultery while pursuing the impeachment of Clinton. Nonetheless, Hagee invited Gingrich to be the keynote speaker for his 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. Mirroring the right-wing noise machine, while also reflecting the anti-intellectualism of Word of Faith, Hagee added that "the worldy-wise pseudo-sophisticates of the major news media will always put a positive spin on stories involving pet liberal issues while sneering at issues important to Christians and conservatives." Hagee's disdain for "pseudo-sophisticates" reflects the Word of Faith view that revelation knowledge is superior to the other truth-seeking pursuits and that any endeavor driven by critical thinking is to be not only scorned but mistrusted as the work of the devil himself.
In his writing and preaching, Hagee makes clear that people who engage in revelation thinking are controlled by God, not by their minds, and therefore will have more financial abundance in their lives: "Reason givers are controlled by their minds," he writes in his book, Mastering Your Money. "They do not ask God how much they should give; they ask their CPA. Revelation givers are controlled by the Holy Spirit. They see God as their supplier. Revelation givers do not give according to what they have, but according to what God can supply." Hagee continues that "you will never prosper until you believe and confess that it is God's will for you to prosper." He believes that there are two economic forces at work, those of God and those of Satan, and "you do not qualify for God's abundance until you become God's child." And exhibiting the anti-worldly, anti-government position of Word of Faith, Hagee maintains that "God Almighty controls the economy of America, and God controls your income! Your source is God, not the United States government. ... When you give to God, He controls your income. There is no such thing as fixed income in the Kingdom of God. Your income is controlled by your giving." Believing or not believing in these principles is one's choice, and if you make the wrong choice, you've clearly sided with Satan and will be cursed financially: "The difference between living a life of prosperity and a life of poverty is a matter of choice. ... Tithing is a choice. If you choose to not tithe, you will be living under a financial curse."
One former member of Hagee's church, fearful to talk on the record because Hagee is "really powerful" and has "got so much clout," described Hagee as "very angry" and "not approachable." The former member, who attended Cornerstone for about ten years, recalled that she had been going to Cornerstone for six years before she actually met Hagee. "I said, 'Oh, Pastor Hagee, I'm finally getting to meet you after six years,' and he said, 'Oh, I've been back here every Sunday' and turned and walked off." Her husband is bipolar, and when they went to marriage counseling, the church "told him he was a loser and an infidel." The counselors encouraged the former congregant to leave her husband, but "thankfully, I prayed enough. ... I began to see trouble, you know, I began to see things that wasn't right."
About the tithe, the former Cornerstone member recalled, "That's a shame issue there if you don't tithe. … We've heard him say, … everybody who's got their tithing envelope, wave it in the air. So that's shame on you" if you don't tithe. Yet Hagee, before he converted his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television into a church in 2004 (thus relieving him of the obligation to file a publicly available tax return), was known to be the highest-paid nonprofit executive in San Antonio, making nearly $1 million a year. Now, because of the conversion, his salary remains a secret. In 2000 his John C. Hagee Royalty Trust, whose trustee is Hagee's brother-in-law Scott Farhart, spent $5.5 million on a ranch in Brackettville, Texas. The property includes the Hagee-owned LaFonda Ranch, which has its own private airstrip, where televangelist and Hagee friend Kenneth Copeland landed his aircraft for a weekend of hunting rare exotic game.
Another component of Hagee's ranch is a cattle-raising operation. For that project, Hagee formed a nonprofit -- run only by himself -- called the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, which he claims works on joint research endeavors with an Israeli university. Water consumption is highly regulated in the parched section of the state where the ranch is located, but San Antonio legislator Frank Corte introduced a bill that would have exempted Hagee's outfit from the state's water use laws. To move the bill, Hagee enlisted the services of one of San Antonio's most powerful lobbyists, David Earl. Members of Hagee's church sent more than eighty nearly identical letters -- some from the church's fax machine -- to the Texas House of Representatives committee considering the bill, urging its passage. The letters argued that the bill would "protect Texas agricultural research projects that have entered into agreements to share information with Israeli organizations." The bill stalled in committee, and Hagee's lobbyists were forced to apply for permits from the local groundwater control board in Kinney County to pump water on the property.
Other Hagee ventures operate through trusts and companies run by Farhart and involve prominent San Antonio businesspeople. These ventures include a failed investment in a proposed hotel in downtown San Antonio and a planned development near his church. In another venture, Hagee crossed a group of local businesspeople who sought to market their beauty products made from salt from the Dead Sea through Hagee's ministry. They charged in a 2006 lawsuit that they entered into the deal after Hagee billed himself "as someone that had a lot of political connections," making the group "aware of his rubbing shoulders with people influential in the Bush Cabinet," according to the group's lawyer, Jesse Castillo. Castillo said that his clients claimed that Hagee backed out of the deal because the church was facing tax problems due to "a concern that they were mixing the business interests of the church with the business interests."
The former congregant whose husband is bipolar said that even though she and her husband wrote a big check to the church after they sold their house and tithed close to 10 percent of their income, "We never prospered there." Most of the people she knew there were struggling financially, including some who were evicted from their apartments because they couldn't pay their rent. Hagee, she said, has a "very powerful hold, and you don't even realize it. ... We were there ten years, and I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was." She even feared speaking to a reporter: "If I say too much about him, God's going to get me. ... [Hagee's] got so much money and he's so powerful, he could take everything we have in a minute."
Another former member told of tithing even when she had to borrow out of her 401(k) plan to make her mortgage payments. At one point, she said, "at Christmastime I didn't have gifts under my tree. Two small gifts for my kids, that was it. I was so broke, and I was tithing." At the time, she believed that tithing would result in her own blessing. Still another former member, a single mother divorced from an abusive husband, told of tithing out of her child support checks, even though she was living in an apartment with subsidized rent. Contrasting her small apartment with Hagee's home in an exclusive San Antonio subdivision and his multimillion-dollar ranch, she added, "I don't even have a house! My kids grew up on top of each other like sardines. ... I just want a little house." She added, "I thought something was wrong with me. Why am I still [living like this]. I've given and given and given and tithed and tithed and tithed." But while attending Cornerstone, she, like the others, felt guilt and enormous pressure not to question Hagee or his doctrine, and that atmosphere was reinforced through multiple church services each week and mandatory meetings with smaller cell groups whose leaders were vetted on the basis of classes, tests, and the faithfulness of their tithing. As a result, the former member said, "I looked to Pastor Hagee as a god."
Although over the past two years John Hagee has gained international notoriety for his agitation for an Armageddon war with Iran and his evangelical Zionist project, Christians United for Israel, back in 2000 he was little known outside Pentecostal circles. But for many years Hagee had been a mainstay on religious television, a Word of Faith televangelist with a large and devoted following. Known also as the prosperity gospel, Word of Faith is a nondenominational religious movement with no membership or doctrinal requirements. Its main tenets are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment, especially secularism and humanistic thought, are denounced as the work of Satan.
When preparing to run for president, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush knew that the San Antonio televangelist had a large television audience, which Bush family evangelical adviser Doug Wead estimated at seven million strong. Wead had ghostwritten Hagee's 1997 conspiracy-theory book, Day of Deception, which claims to take "a probing look inside the United States government and expose blatant acts of deception designed to destroy democracy in America." Those "acts of deception," according to the book, were carried out by the Antichrist in his effort to install a "one-world order." Evidence of the one-world order, according to Hagee, includes "the Eastern Establishment," the United Nations, the National Education Association (NEA), the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Illuminati, the imaginary, shadowy group of international financiers that has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Hagee didn't mention that many Illuminati theorists believe in a connection between the Illuminati and the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, to which both Bushes belong. Nor did Hagee, who bills himself as a friend of the Jews, note that Illuminati conspiracies have often included anti-Semitic narratives about Jewish bankers.
In his 1988 campaign biography of Bush Sr., Wead sought to dispel conspiracies that the Bush family was behind the supposed one-world order. But as a ghostwriter, Wead blamed his old boss for trying to bring about what Hagee believes is a satanic, demonic "new world order." Just one year after penning Hagee's conspiracy-laden screed, Wead was pushing Governor Bush and Karl Rove to arrange meetings between the governor and the pastor, and the governor enlisted Hagee to recruit other pastors to sign on to the Bush campaign effort.
Despite accusing Bush Sr. of collaboration with the Antichrist, Hagee delivered for George W. Bush in his 2000 book, God's Candidate for America. In that book, Hagee was unequivocal that Jesus would vote for Bush. "If you are concerned about the sort of America your children and grandchildren will grow up within," Hagee wrote, "then you need to cast your vote for George W. Bush and the Republican Party." God's Candidate, like Day of Deception, decries Satan's work through the United Nations and the NEA but omits references to a new world order created by international financiers and the "Eastern Establishment." Hagee continued to promote the book even after Bush took office, and he wrote a prayer for the president in the post-2004 election edition of Stephen Mansfield's campaign biography, The Faith of George W. Bush.
But for the vitriolic preacher, it wasn't enough to endorse Bush; Hagee had to equate the opposition with evil incarnate. The Democratic Party, Hagee wrote, "is the home of those who advocate homosexuality, abortion, free-sex, unlimited handouts, maximum taxation, little freedom from government control, and toleration of drug use." The GOP, in contrast, "is the home of social conservatives who believe in the sanctity of life, hard work, clean moral living, limited government interference in our lives, minimum taxation, and a return to Bible-based societal values." The book was published by his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television, which that year used tax-exempt donor money to pay Hagee nearly half a million dollars in salary and deferred compensation for sixteen hours of work a week. Hagee earned another $300,000 from his church. But in keeping with the Word of Faith credo that poverty is evidence of insufficient faith, Hagee went on to depict welfare as satanic:
Instead of faith, Satan offers fear; instead of commitment, Satan offers selfish promiscuity; instead of stable home lives, Satan offers multiple divorces. Instead of career and gainful employment, Satan offers laziness and quick-money schemes and gambling. Instead of Christian charity, Satan offers a lifetime on the public dole. God's will for each man and woman is to have positive self-esteem; Satan wants each man, woman, and child to feel insignificant.
Hagee offered up then-Governor Bush's taxpayer-funded, "faith-based initiative" as the best alternative to Satan.The Bush-Hagee alliance possessed a certain cognitive dissonance as so-called compassionate conservatism collided with mean-spirited denunciations of demon possession. Hagee lauded the Republican Contract with America, spearheaded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who later admitted that he was committing adultery while pursuing the impeachment of Clinton. Nonetheless, Hagee invited Gingrich to be the keynote speaker for his 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. Mirroring the right-wing noise machine, while also reflecting the anti-intellectualism of Word of Faith, Hagee added that "the worldy-wise pseudo-sophisticates of the major news media will always put a positive spin on stories involving pet liberal issues while sneering at issues important to Christians and conservatives." Hagee's disdain for "pseudo-sophisticates" reflects the Word of Faith view that revelation knowledge is superior to the other truth-seeking pursuits and that any endeavor driven by critical thinking is to be not only scorned but mistrusted as the work of the devil himself.
In his writing and preaching, Hagee makes clear that people who engage in revelation thinking are controlled by God, not by their minds, and therefore will have more financial abundance in their lives: "Reason givers are controlled by their minds," he writes in his book, Mastering Your Money. "They do not ask God how much they should give; they ask their CPA. Revelation givers are controlled by the Holy Spirit. They see God as their supplier. Revelation givers do not give according to what they have, but according to what God can supply." Hagee continues that "you will never prosper until you believe and confess that it is God's will for you to prosper." He believes that there are two economic forces at work, those of God and those of Satan, and "you do not qualify for God's abundance until you become God's child." And exhibiting the anti-worldly, anti-government position of Word of Faith, Hagee maintains that "God Almighty controls the economy of America, and God controls your income! Your source is God, not the United States government. ... When you give to God, He controls your income. There is no such thing as fixed income in the Kingdom of God. Your income is controlled by your giving." Believing or not believing in these principles is one's choice, and if you make the wrong choice, you've clearly sided with Satan and will be cursed financially: "The difference between living a life of prosperity and a life of poverty is a matter of choice. ... Tithing is a choice. If you choose to not tithe, you will be living under a financial curse."
One former member of Hagee's church, fearful to talk on the record because Hagee is "really powerful" and has "got so much clout," described Hagee as "very angry" and "not approachable." The former member, who attended Cornerstone for about ten years, recalled that she had been going to Cornerstone for six years before she actually met Hagee. "I said, 'Oh, Pastor Hagee, I'm finally getting to meet you after six years,' and he said, 'Oh, I've been back here every Sunday' and turned and walked off." Her husband is bipolar, and when they went to marriage counseling, the church "told him he was a loser and an infidel." The counselors encouraged the former congregant to leave her husband, but "thankfully, I prayed enough. ... I began to see trouble, you know, I began to see things that wasn't right."
About the tithe, the former Cornerstone member recalled, "That's a shame issue there if you don't tithe. … We've heard him say, … everybody who's got their tithing envelope, wave it in the air. So that's shame on you" if you don't tithe. Yet Hagee, before he converted his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television into a church in 2004 (thus relieving him of the obligation to file a publicly available tax return), was known to be the highest-paid nonprofit executive in San Antonio, making nearly $1 million a year. Now, because of the conversion, his salary remains a secret. In 2000 his John C. Hagee Royalty Trust, whose trustee is Hagee's brother-in-law Scott Farhart, spent $5.5 million on a ranch in Brackettville, Texas. The property includes the Hagee-owned LaFonda Ranch, which has its own private airstrip, where televangelist and Hagee friend Kenneth Copeland landed his aircraft for a weekend of hunting rare exotic game.
Another component of Hagee's ranch is a cattle-raising operation. For that project, Hagee formed a nonprofit -- run only by himself -- called the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, which he claims works on joint research endeavors with an Israeli university. Water consumption is highly regulated in the parched section of the state where the ranch is located, but San Antonio legislator Frank Corte introduced a bill that would have exempted Hagee's outfit from the state's water use laws. To move the bill, Hagee enlisted the services of one of San Antonio's most powerful lobbyists, David Earl. Members of Hagee's church sent more than eighty nearly identical letters -- some from the church's fax machine -- to the Texas House of Representatives committee considering the bill, urging its passage. The letters argued that the bill would "protect Texas agricultural research projects that have entered into agreements to share information with Israeli organizations." The bill stalled in committee, and Hagee's lobbyists were forced to apply for permits from the local groundwater control board in Kinney County to pump water on the property.
Other Hagee ventures operate through trusts and companies run by Farhart and involve prominent San Antonio businesspeople. These ventures include a failed investment in a proposed hotel in downtown San Antonio and a planned development near his church. In another venture, Hagee crossed a group of local businesspeople who sought to market their beauty products made from salt from the Dead Sea through Hagee's ministry. They charged in a 2006 lawsuit that they entered into the deal after Hagee billed himself "as someone that had a lot of political connections," making the group "aware of his rubbing shoulders with people influential in the Bush Cabinet," according to the group's lawyer, Jesse Castillo. Castillo said that his clients claimed that Hagee backed out of the deal because the church was facing tax problems due to "a concern that they were mixing the business interests of the church with the business interests."
The former congregant whose husband is bipolar said that even though she and her husband wrote a big check to the church after they sold their house and tithed close to 10 percent of their income, "We never prospered there." Most of the people she knew there were struggling financially, including some who were evicted from their apartments because they couldn't pay their rent. Hagee, she said, has a "very powerful hold, and you don't even realize it. ... We were there ten years, and I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was." She even feared speaking to a reporter: "If I say too much about him, God's going to get me. ... [Hagee's] got so much money and he's so powerful, he could take everything we have in a minute."
Another former member told of tithing even when she had to borrow out of her 401(k) plan to make her mortgage payments. At one point, she said, "at Christmastime I didn't have gifts under my tree. Two small gifts for my kids, that was it. I was so broke, and I was tithing." At the time, she believed that tithing would result in her own blessing. Still another former member, a single mother divorced from an abusive husband, told of tithing out of her child support checks, even though she was living in an apartment with subsidized rent. Contrasting her small apartment with Hagee's home in an exclusive San Antonio subdivision and his multimillion-dollar ranch, she added, "I don't even have a house! My kids grew up on top of each other like sardines. ... I just want a little house." She added, "I thought something was wrong with me. Why am I still [living like this]. I've given and given and given and tithed and tithed and tithed." But while attending Cornerstone, she, like the others, felt guilt and enormous pressure not to question Hagee or his doctrine, and that atmosphere was reinforced through multiple church services each week and mandatory meetings with smaller cell groups whose leaders were vetted on the basis of classes, tests, and the faithfulness of their tithing. As a result, the former member said, "I looked to Pastor Hagee as a god."
sam powell
Sam Powell
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:12–15)
Notice the echoes of the same themes—the tower reaching to heaven. We will be like the most high. We will exalt our throne. We will sit on the mount of the congregation of the Lord. Read the whole chapter. Isaiah is speaking about the spirit that drives Babylon, and every kingdom of this earth.
In other words, “We will establish the kingdom of God on this earth. We will build cities. We will pass laws. We will deal with evil-doers. We will create a society, a City on the Hill. And there will be no more curse.”
View it from the backdrop of the description of Babel. This is a major theme throughout the Bible, but I only want to focus on one aspect of it.
The Tower was built with bricks and mortar, and the original readers of Genesis would have known exactly what that meant. Someone had to make the bricks and build the buildings.
That would not have been Pharaoh, the one with the grand plan. It would have been the slaves.
And so comes the downfall of every single scheme to build the kingdom of God on this earth. Someone has to make the bricks.
Even the founding of our own country, which many claim is the “City on the Hill”, using the phrase of the puritans. Who did the work?
Dabney complained after the slaves were set free that he hardly had time to write anymore because of all the menial labor that wasn’t getting done.
In our own state, the California Indians were enslaved to harvest the crops and build the cities. The adobe houses weren’t going to build themselves.
The “City on the Hill” is a grand idea, until you think about who is making the bricks. One thing is for sure. The one who says, “Come let us make bricks” is NOT the one who is actually making the bricks. The one who holds the whip is the one giving the commands. The one at the other end of the whip is making the bricks.
At the end of Genesis 11, there is a contrast. We are introduced to a new character. Abraham. God gives Abraham a promise and Abraham believes it. And he learns to wait for it.
Hebrews 11 tells us this:
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9–10)
Abraham lived in tents his whole life, because he waited for another kind of city. A city where God makes the bricks and builds the city.
Dwell on that for a moment.
There is no oppression, no vanity under the sun, no pain and toil.
And truly no more curse. No curse for anyone, for God will take it on himself.
HE makes the bricks and prepares a place for you. And you can dwell in a tent while you wait, if that is what it takes. THIS is the kingdom of God. --Sam Powell; Lambs Reign Who’s Building The Bricks Of Nationalism? 11.2.22
Notice the echoes of the same themes—the tower reaching to heaven. We will be like the most high. We will exalt our throne. We will sit on the mount of the congregation of the Lord. Read the whole chapter. Isaiah is speaking about the spirit that drives Babylon, and every kingdom of this earth.
In other words, “We will establish the kingdom of God on this earth. We will build cities. We will pass laws. We will deal with evil-doers. We will create a society, a City on the Hill. And there will be no more curse.”
View it from the backdrop of the description of Babel. This is a major theme throughout the Bible, but I only want to focus on one aspect of it.
The Tower was built with bricks and mortar, and the original readers of Genesis would have known exactly what that meant. Someone had to make the bricks and build the buildings.
That would not have been Pharaoh, the one with the grand plan. It would have been the slaves.
And so comes the downfall of every single scheme to build the kingdom of God on this earth. Someone has to make the bricks.
Even the founding of our own country, which many claim is the “City on the Hill”, using the phrase of the puritans. Who did the work?
Dabney complained after the slaves were set free that he hardly had time to write anymore because of all the menial labor that wasn’t getting done.
In our own state, the California Indians were enslaved to harvest the crops and build the cities. The adobe houses weren’t going to build themselves.
The “City on the Hill” is a grand idea, until you think about who is making the bricks. One thing is for sure. The one who says, “Come let us make bricks” is NOT the one who is actually making the bricks. The one who holds the whip is the one giving the commands. The one at the other end of the whip is making the bricks.
At the end of Genesis 11, there is a contrast. We are introduced to a new character. Abraham. God gives Abraham a promise and Abraham believes it. And he learns to wait for it.
Hebrews 11 tells us this:
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9–10)
Abraham lived in tents his whole life, because he waited for another kind of city. A city where God makes the bricks and builds the city.
Dwell on that for a moment.
There is no oppression, no vanity under the sun, no pain and toil.
And truly no more curse. No curse for anyone, for God will take it on himself.
HE makes the bricks and prepares a place for you. And you can dwell in a tent while you wait, if that is what it takes. THIS is the kingdom of God. --Sam Powell; Lambs Reign Who’s Building The Bricks Of Nationalism? 11.2.22
richard pratt
Richard Pratt
In recent decades, Christian television has spread what many call the “prosperity gospel” — the misguided belief that if we have enough faith, God will heal our diseases and provide us with great financial blessings. Of course, most people reading this article scoff at the thought that faith can yield such benefits. But don’t laugh too hard. We have our own prosperity gospel for our families. We simply replace having enough faith with having enough obedience. We believe that we can lift our families out of their brokenness if we conform to God’s commands.
You’ve probably encountered this outlook at one time or another. Teachers and pastors tell wives that they will enjoy wonderful relationships with their husbands and children if they will become “an excellent wife” (Prov. 31:10). After all, Proverbs 31:28 says: “Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her.” At men’s conferences, fathers recommit themselves for the sake of their children because “the righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him!” (Prov. 20:7). In much the same way, young parents are led to believe that the eternal destinies of their children depend on strict and consistent training. You know the verse: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). Passages like these have been taken as indicating that Christian families experience blessings and loss from God, quid pro quo. We believe that God promises a wonderful family life to those who obey His commands.
Now, we need to be clear here. The proverbs commend certain paths to family members because they reflect the ways God ordinarily distributes His blessings. But ordinarily does not mean necessarily. Excellent wives have good reason to expect honor from their husbands and children. Fathers with integrity often enjoy seeing God’s blessings on their children. Parents who train their children in the fear of the Lord follow the path that frequently brings children to saving faith. But excellent wives, faithful husbands, and conscientious parents often endure terrible hardship in their homes because proverbs are not promises. They are adages that direct us toward general principles that must be applied carefully in a fallen world where life is always somewhat out of kilter. As the books of Job and Ecclesiastes illustrate so vividly, we misconstrue the Word of God when we treat proverbs as if they were divine promises. --Richard Pratt; Key Life; Broken Homes in the Bible 12.5.19
You’ve probably encountered this outlook at one time or another. Teachers and pastors tell wives that they will enjoy wonderful relationships with their husbands and children if they will become “an excellent wife” (Prov. 31:10). After all, Proverbs 31:28 says: “Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her.” At men’s conferences, fathers recommit themselves for the sake of their children because “the righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him!” (Prov. 20:7). In much the same way, young parents are led to believe that the eternal destinies of their children depend on strict and consistent training. You know the verse: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). Passages like these have been taken as indicating that Christian families experience blessings and loss from God, quid pro quo. We believe that God promises a wonderful family life to those who obey His commands.
Now, we need to be clear here. The proverbs commend certain paths to family members because they reflect the ways God ordinarily distributes His blessings. But ordinarily does not mean necessarily. Excellent wives have good reason to expect honor from their husbands and children. Fathers with integrity often enjoy seeing God’s blessings on their children. Parents who train their children in the fear of the Lord follow the path that frequently brings children to saving faith. But excellent wives, faithful husbands, and conscientious parents often endure terrible hardship in their homes because proverbs are not promises. They are adages that direct us toward general principles that must be applied carefully in a fallen world where life is always somewhat out of kilter. As the books of Job and Ecclesiastes illustrate so vividly, we misconstrue the Word of God when we treat proverbs as if they were divine promises. --Richard Pratt; Key Life; Broken Homes in the Bible 12.5.19
natalie prieb
- Etta Prince-Gibson -