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.

Southern Baptists Need to Stop Hating Thom Rainer

I don’t know who Tim Dukeman is, but he has written an excellent blog post titled Selling Crack for Jesus.  This post highlights a major problem in the Southern Baptist Convention.  It’s not too long, and I’d encourage you to read it before you continue reading this post.

Thom Rainer, President and CEO of Lifeway, seems like a nice guy.  He writes blogs that are helpful for some pastors and churches.  And he makes his living selling spiritual poison.  

His decision to sell books by some of today’s most harmful false teachers is leading many further from Christ and hardening hearts to the truth of the gospel.  

If you don’t believe me, take a look at some of the books found by JD Hall and Justin Peters when they visited a Lifeway together a few months ago.

• T.D. Jakes teaches the prosperity gospel, which is an entirely different gospel than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and no gospel at all.  He also comes from a Oneness Pentecostal background which denies that God is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit all at the same time.
• Rick Warren distorts the message of the book of Daniel into a diet plan in The Daniel Plan.  
• John Hagee is a false prophet.
• Sarah Young is a false prophet who blasphemously claims to write the very words of Jesus.  It should be noted that the tenth anniversary edition of her book Jesus Calling contains numerous revisions of the supposed words of Jesus.
• Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker is supposedly a Christian book on prayer, yet his ideas are not drawn from Scripture but a Jewish myth.
• The various books about supposed visits to Heaven contradict Scripture and each other.

In Matthew 23:15, in the middle of a series of woes pronounced against the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord Jesus said this:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 

The scribes and the Pharisees were the dominant false teachers in Jesus’ day.  Jesus tells us that it’s better for a person to be spiritually neutral than caught in false teaching, for the person caught up in a false religious system, even if it has a veneer of Christian truth, is doubly damned.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul wrote to Timothy, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”  The source of all false teaching, going all the way back to the serpent in the Garden, is demonic.  

False teaching is not something to be trifled with.  

I have no doubt Thom Rainer knows these verses.  Yet, he sells books by demonstrably false teachers and false prophets for profit.  He personally profits off of the selling of books that contradict the teaching of Scripture, that have their origin not in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather are the doctrines of demons.

What does they say about Thom Rainer? About Lifeway?  About the Southern Baptist Convention?

I don’t know Thom Rainer’s heart.  I do know though, that if Thom Rainer’s fellow Southern Baptists actually loved him they would call him to repentance.  The fact that none of his peers among the SBC elite have done so indicates that they are not loving him as they should.

If those close to him truly loved Rainer they would warn him.  They would plead with him.  And if he wouldn’t stop selling the spiritual poison that is he is selling, they would seek to have him removed from his position.  By continuing to sell false teaching for profit he is putting his own soul and the souls of thousands at risk of eternal damnation.  

It is not loving to remain silent when this is the case.  It is not loving to gently ask him why he is selling these books and then drop the issue when he doesn’t respond.  

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to keep calling on him to stop selling books by false teachers through whatever means are available.  

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to stop shopping at Lifeway and hope they have to shut down operations if Rainer won’t stop selling the dangerous books he’s selling.

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to call on influential Southern Baptists like David Platt and Al Mohler, who have spoken out against some of the very books pictured above, to use their influence to remove the books of false teachers and heretics from Lifeway.  

The way to love Thom Rainers and our neighbors right now is to not stop talking about this issue no matter how much smug condescension and bitter hate-speech the Southern Baptist elites like Ed Stetzer ( also employed by Lifeway) and Russell Moore send our way.  

Brothers and sisters, let us love Thom Rainer and our neighbors by not staying silent and not remaining inactive.