LifeWay and Tyndale House Have Brought Reproach Upon the Bride of Christ

When #the15 was first becoming whatever it is, there were several groups that showed up on Twitter to tell us to shut up. First were the racists complaining about the fact that #the15 seemed to be comprised mostly of white men, even though we weren't talking about race. Then a group of gay post-graduate students from liberal seminaries came by and mocked us even though we weren't talking about homosexuality.  Then the rabid SBC anti-Calvinists, whose understanding of grace and forgiveness is as tortured as their understanding of  ὁ πιστεύων in John 3:16, showed up with their usual vitriol.  Finally, the tone police stepped in shaking their e-heads and wagging their e-fingers with the standard refrain, "the world is watching."

When I hear people complain about the tone of those few Christians in North America who think that truth matters I can only assume they've never actually read the Bible. The Old Testament Prophets, John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, John, and Jesus himself all used much stronger language than I or anyone I follow has ever used when calling out false teachers for what they are.

The truth is the world generally doesn't pay attention to Christians debating right theology and practices, and even if the world was paying to attention to #the15 they would have seen a few hundred people calling on LifeWay to stop profiting off of the sale of false teaching and the various groups above telling us to stop talking and crawl back into the holes we came from.  I'm not exactly sure how #the15 would reflect poorly upon Christ.

So the unbelieving world wasn't paying attention.  Then the Pulpit and Pen ran an open letter from Alex Malarkey, "The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven". He publicly stated what he and his mom had both been trying to communicate for years, that the book was fiction.  He was a six year old boy who wanted attention and told lies.  A sin, yes, but his public repentance evidences that his faith in Christ is now genuine and his sins are washed clean by the blood of Christ.  

The world still didn't know who #the15 were, but the story made international news and more than a week later continues to do so. The initial story was only that the boy recanted his story. Those of us who have been paying attention, those who have for years been begging and pleading with LifeWay to stop selling these heavenly tourism books that contradict Scripture and each other, knew that there was much more to the story. Now the story behind the story is in the international news.

Beth Malarkey, Justin Peters, and Phil Johnson had all been doing everything they could to inform Tyndale House, the publisher of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, and LifeWay, the world's largest Christian retailer and a Southern Baptist entity, that Alex did not stand by his original story.  Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer of LifeWay knew this, and they continued to sell the book.  The executives of Tyndale House knew this, and they continued to produce and market the book.

To make the whole mess worse, although Alex Malarkey, who is a quadriplegic with many medical expenses, is listed as a co-author of the book, he and his mother haven't received a dime in royalties.  Tyndale House knew this also. 

When Alex first wrote his open letter last week, both Tyndale House and LifeWay released statements stating that they had just learned of his recantation.  Both Tyndale House and LifeWay lied.

For years LifeWay and Tyndale House have both knowingly and intentionally participated in the exploitation of a quadriplegic boy for their own profit.

For years both LifeWay and Tyndale House have knowingly and intentionally sold lies for profit.

For years both LifeWay and Tyndale House knowingly and intentionally defrauded customers, selling them a book they knew was not true.

Now, with the world paying attention not to the supposed petty bickering of #the15 but one of the scandals we were upset about to begin with, both LifeWay and Tyndale House are bringing reproach upon the name of our Savior in the eyes of the unbelieving world.  

Thom Rainer and Ed Stetzer need to be relieved of their duties at LifeWay.  They have betrayed the trust of the Southern Baptists who gave them those positions.  More importantly, they have grievously sinned, and until they repent the church should treat them as Scripture instructs us to treat unrepentant sinners.   

Before anyone accuses of me of being a cold-hearted legalist, let me say that the good news for Thom Rainer, Ed Stetzer, and everyone at Tyndale House, the good news for all of us, is that Jesus has an unending supply of grace for sinners who come to Him in humble repentance.  Jesus also said that we will know true believers by their fruit, and right now the fruit of Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer appears to be rotten to the very core.  

I remain hopeful that Stetzer, Rainer, and the executives of Tyndale House will soon do the right thing and confess their sins and repent. I pray it happens.  But at the time of this writing, neither LifeWay nor Tyndale House has even acknowledged that a scandal exists.  

I also pray that what's been dubbed the Evangelical Industrial Complex, the Christian publishers, TV/radio stations, music producers, and conference circuit, will take notice and clean up their acts.  For too long they have blasphemed our Lord by peddling false doctrine for profit.  #the15 aren't going away.  When we see corruption we're going to do whatever we can to bring it into the light. We do this not from a twisted desire to see lives and careers destroyed, but out of love for our neighbor and the glory of the name of our Lord. 

(If you think I've been too harsh today, I would encourage to listen to the Justin Peters Program episode dated January 19, 2015.)

What Jesus Said to a 1st Century Group of Heresy Hunters

A couple of weeks ago two of the Southern Baptist Convention’s biggest celebrities, Beth Moore and Perry Noble, both wrote blog articles aimed at silencing their critics. In Noble's case the criticisms were in response to his changing of the Ten Commandments to the Ten Promises, along with some outright false information that God supposedly told him to say in the NewSpring Church Christmas Eve service. Moore was responding to a tweet a young woman had sent out labeling her as a false teacher.

Moore used the term "heresy hunters" in her article, a standard tactic of those in the seeker-sensitive and charismatic movements to turn the "critics" calling them to abandon aberrant teaching into the bad guys. Both Moore and Noble did an excellent job of drumming up sympathy for themselves, playing the victim, and setting themselves up as the bold heroes who won't back down in the face of relentless persecution. 

Moore even accused the woman who called her a false teacher, and heresy hunters in general, of being unChristlike. One of the many oddities of the modern American church is that super-celebrities like Moore and Noble won't say a negative word about anything or anyone, no matter how blatant the false teaching, but will question the salvation of those who dare call false teaching false. Many before me have noted the hypocrisy of mean-spirited accusations made against the supposedly mean-spirited critics, but that's a topic for another day. 

The question I want to examine today is this: what would Jesus say to the so-called heresy hunters? I think Revelation 2:1-7 gives us a pretty good idea.

In Revelation 2-3 Jesus spoke to seven churches. These were real churches in real history, and the words of Revelation are directly from the mouth of our Lord. Generally speaking, the seven messages follow a pattern of Jesus introducing himself, commending the church for what they were doing well, criticizing the church for an area where they were failing, commanding the church to do something, and closing with a promise. The church in Laodicea received no commendation, as a careful reading of the text reveals that there were no genuine believers in that church. The churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia received no criticism as they were suffering well in the face of intense persecution.  

The first of the seven messages was delivered to the church in Ephesus. It reads:

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. - Revelation 2:1-7 (ESV)

There's a lot here, but I want to focus today on Jesus' commendations and criticism.

Commendations

• their works
• their toil
• their patient endurance
• that they could not bear with those who were evil
• that they tested those who claimed to be apostles and were not
• that they were enduring patiently and bearing up for Christ's sake, and had not grown weary
• that they hated the works of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus also hated

Criticism

• they had abandoned the love they had at first

Jesus seemed quite pleased that in addition their faithful work for the Kingdom the Ephesians were testing those who wanted to teach them, and that they hated the works of the Nicolaitans. Can anyone in modern American evangelicalism conceive of Jesus hating something? Approving of those who hate something? Not much is known about the Nicolaitans, but it is believed that they were antinomians in the truest sense of the word, engaging in unrestrained pursuit of pleasure, including sexual immorality, while claiming to follow Christ. Jesus hated that, and he praised the Ephesians for hating that. He also praised them for testing those who claimed to have his authority and removing from fellowship those who were found to be false.  

So Jesus didn't condemn or criticize the Ephesians for heresy hunting, he praised them for testing the words of men against his unchanging word.  He didn't condemn or criticize the Ephesians for removing the false apostles and evil men from the fellowship.  He didn't call them arrogant, judgmental, unloving, and divisive for doing so.  He praised them for it.  He said keep doing it.  

And it's important to note that Jesus praises them for these things while criticizing their loss of love.  Their testing of the false apostles and hatred of the works of the Nicolaitans are not equated with being unloving.  The problem was internal.  They were doing everything Jesus wanted them to do, but internally a problem had developed.  They had lost their love and were now doing the right things while lacking the right motivation.  They were just going through the motions.

What, then, is the application for the "heresy hunters" in the church today? Here's what I would say:

Deeds and creeds matter. It's common today to hear things like "deeds not creeds" or "doctrine divides; love unites" as if the two are mutually exclusive.  It's actually a false dichotomy. We don't have to choose one or the other; we're commanded to do both. Those who have gifts and a passion for discernment and sound doctrine must serve The Lord wholeheartedly while exercising discernment. We must not become the caricature that people like Beth Moore and Perry Noble make us out to be, sitting on the sidelines pointing out problems while not doing anything ourselves.  

Keep testing the words of those who want to teach the church against the authoritative, sufficient, inerrant word of God. This honors Jesus. This is what we're commanded to do.

Keep identifying those who teach falsely as those who teach falsely. We live in a different age than the early church did. The shepherds of a local flock, usually, only needed to be concerned with the local flock. Today, anyone anywhere in the world can say anything they want and have it reach worldwide audiences in seconds. Our local churches and the church universal need men and women who will not sit idly by while false teachers and Scripture twisters appear on Christian TV/radio, sell their products in Christian bookstores, and fill up our social media feeds and those of our neighbors. Keep testing what people say, and when it doesn’t line up with Scripture, call it out as false teaching.

Don’t abandon the love you had at first. I imagine many people with gifts and passion for discernment, like myself, came from backgrounds of weak or false teaching. Then one day, through the reading of the Word or the preaching of a faithful man, we were exposed to the truth. Our hearts were filled with joy as we discovered the holy, sovereign, merciful God. We finally saw how bad we truly are and how good God is. Over time, the joy faded as we became increasingly dissatisfied with mainstream evangelicalism, as no one else seemed to care about these wonderful discoveries we’d made, and as we begin to see false teaching every where we turned. For some, and I was once here, joy turned to bitterness and anger. Here are some suggestions I think will help us maintain the love we had at first as we continue to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

• Maintain an active devotional life. Every Christian needs to be reading the Word and spending time in prayer and praise every day, but I think this is especially true for those who are listening to podcasts and reading blogs that highlight false teaching.  If we try to do these things apart from an ongoing devotional life with the Lord, disaster waits.  
• Pray for the false teachers. They may be enemies of the gospel, but so were we at one time.  We should fervently pray that God would open their hearts and minds to the truth of the gospel and that they would repent and believe.
• Don’t confuse weak or lost sheep with wolves. Not everyone who shares a Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer quote, listens to the preaching of Steven Furtick, or attends Bethel in Redding is a wolf.  Some are deceived, some are genuine believers who haven’t been discipled correctly.  They are not our enemies.  They need the gospel and the truth of God’s Word.  Jesus confronted the false teachers; he had compassion on the harassed and helpless people who were like sheep without a shepherd.  The unfortunate reality of our day is that many professing Christians are without a human shepherd pointing them to the Great Shepherd.  We can help, but not if we look at the shepherdless sheep and see wolves.
• Listen to your critics. It’s not very consistent to criticize others for not listening to us and then not listen when they call us arrogant, judgmental, divisive, unloving, etc.  Just because someone makes the accusation doesn’t mean it’s true, but if someone does make the accusation, we must examine our own actions and heart motivations.  
• Criticize a person’s words, not the person. I cringed a little when I saw a high-profile teacher and writer, for whom I have great respect, make a comment about Beth Moore’s outfit recently.  The same goes for graphics comparing someone to a comic book villain or comments about a person’s voice.  It’s cheap, and it’s not Christ-honoring.  We live an age where to criticize a person’s words is considered a personal attack, so we will always sound unloving to some people, but we don’t want to give any unnecessary reasons for them to think that we are.
• Don’t make accusations you’re not prepared to back up. Don’t call someone a false teacher or heretic unless you can show why. In general, I think we should be very slow to label someone a false teacher or heretic unless it is obvious.  When Bill Johnson of Bethel says Christ did his miracles as a man and not as God, yes, call him a Christological heretic.  In many cases though, we’ll have to do a little more work to show how someone’s teaching is inconsistent with the message of Jesus and the Apostles.  It’s a very serious charge to accuse someone of preaching a different gospel or teaching falsely, and unless you yourself can clearly articulate why you think this is case, don’t make the charge.

It’s been so encouraging to see #the15 come together over the last few weeks, to see that there are many people out there across a broad spectrum of backgrounds and theological systems who care about sound doctrine and the rampant error in the church today.  It’s more encouraging to see that some changes are already taking place as a result of #the15 and others not staying silent.  Let us continue to exercise discernment, let us continue to tell the establishment that we won’t sit quietly while they dishonor our Lord, but let us not abandon the love we had at first in the process.  Keep fighting the good fight in the love of our Lord.

Three Reasons I'm Calling on Lifeway to Reform

Over the last week a movement has come together on Twitter known as #the15. I won't go into all the details of what the group is or how it came together, but if you're interested you can read this Baptist News Global article that does a good job of explaining the origin.

The name #the15 came about due to a comment by Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research. The primary objective of #the15 at this point is, at a very minimum, hearing an answer from Thom Rainer, Ed Stetzer, and the LifeWay trustees on why LifeWay sells books and materials that are not just outside of Southern Baptist beliefs, but clearly outside Christian orthodoxy.  For years phone calls, e-mails, and Twitter questions have gone unanswered.

An acknowledgement that rank and file Southern Baptists have questions isn't really enough though.  LifeWay needs to remove all books, music, and other materials coming from false teachers and false churches.  Furthermore, they need to not offer to order books by Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and gay "Christians" that they don't carry in the store on the basis of doctrinal differences when those books are requested.  The Biblical standard is to rebuke and have nothing to do with those who teach false doctrine, not sell their materials for profit.

Unsurprisingly, #the15 has gained critics.  Some are criticizing things we haven't said. Some have a personal ax to grind with some of the more well known people who have joined the15. One common objection has been that reforming LifeWay won't prevent people from buying bad books. That's true. Unbelievers masquerading as Christians will find teachers who will tickle their itching ears and feed their carnal desires. Paul told us so in 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

Still, I am among those who will continue to call for LifeWay to reform.  Here are three reasons why.

As a Southern Baptist I have both a right and a responsibility to demand doctrinal purity in Southern Baptist entities.  I have an obligation to warn against false teaching wherever I see it, but I don't really have any right to appeal to Rome or cults like Bethel in Redding, CA to change what they sell in their bookstores. I'm an outsider.  I do have a right to demand the leaders of my own denomination adhere to Biblical doctrine.  I can't force them to change, but if I make my concerns known I can sleep at night knowing my hands are clean.

Weak and Immature believers are easily led astray.  Imagine there's a woman named Becky.  She's the typical Southern Baptist wife and mother.  She faithfully attends her church with her family and serves where needed.  She hears a steady diet of topical, a-doctrinal sermons with an emphasis on what she needs to do rather than hearing what Christ has done.  One day she goes to LifeWay and sees a big display highlighting the book Jesus Calling.  She reads that a woman heard from Jesus every day for a year! How exciting!  Becky buys the book and begins reading every day.  She feels so loved and encouraged by the words Sarah Young heard from "Jesus." She has no idea that she's probably reading the words of a demon.  The Jesus of Jesus Calling is not the Jesus of the Bible, but Becky is clueless because she hasn't actually been taught the Bible.  She begins to tell her friends about the wonderful book she discovered.  Soon half the church is listening to the voice of a false Jesus.

The same scenario could unfold with any of the dangerous books Lifeway sells.  A little leaven leavens the whole lump.  A little false doctrine in one church member opens the door to more false doctrine in that person's life and in the life of the whole church.  A person who wants to buy false teaching can find it, but when Lifeway sells false teaching they could inadvertently lead well-meaning people astray.  As the operator of a Christian bookstore, the burden is on LifeWay to ensure that they are selling Christian rather than pagan books to people who don't know better.

People who are caught up in false doctrine generally don't realize they're caught up in false doctrine.  In my home town LifeWay is the only Christian bookstore that I know of.  So they're not just serving Baptists.  People who are in Word of Faith/Prosperity churches will shop there alongside Roman Catholics next to hyper-legalistic Bible-belters.  Someone who comes in looking for a book by a certain false teacher may not realize the author is a false teacher.  As a supposedly mission-minded denomination, the Southern Baptist owned and operated LifeWay should not miss out on the opportunity to share the gospel with someone who has never actually heard it.  Yes, the person may storm out in anger, but they may just listen to what the person speaking to them has to say.  Either way, the LifeWay employees will have done what they're Biblicaly required to do rather than participating in the spiritual equivalent of selling crack to a junkie.

I don't know if #the15 will achieve anything in the end.  We will rest in Christ knowing we've done what our King has commanded us to do.  Please join with me in praying for LifeWay to reform, for the true gospel of Christ to be proclaimed and defended, and for the Southern Baptist Convention, and all denominations, to grow in purity and obedience to her Lord.