On the day of Judgment, the typical crack-dealer on the street corner will have less wrath of God poured out upon him that Thom Rainer. What Thom Rainer has made a career selling, destroys not only the body but the soul. Lifeway ‘Christian’ Resources peddles literally every known heresy under the sun. They have abused … Read more
“The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.” Proverbs 28:1 I am tired of Al Mohler. For years, I listened to his various podcasts: every month, every week, every day. Every month or so, I listened to his literary podcast, Thinking in Public, in which he discussed … Read more
Ed Stetzer is the former Lifeway Vice President who was warned by Justin Peters that they were selling a Heaven Tourism book whose author had recanted it, and chose to continue profiting from the book anyway. When the story of Alex Malarkey’s Open Letter to Lifeway (his now-famous repudiation of the book written about him … Read more
“Heaven Tourism” is the genre of sub-Christian literature in which people recall their visits to Heaven, whether in the flesh or in visions. Until Alex Malarkey’s Open Letter to Lifeway (he was the boy who said he came back from Heaven but later repented and claimed it was all made up), Lifeway still peddled the … Read more
Sid Roth is one of the most radical figures in charismania and hosts the program, Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural. There’s never been a supernatural claim Roth hasn’t promoted, and his show is a virtual parade of freaky false prophets, one after another, claiming the most bizarre, ridiculous, and unbiblical stories, all to the enthusiastic applause … Read more
SBC Today, of which we are not ordinarily fond of because they are on the other side of the soteriological aisle and because their nomenclature of “traditional” is hardly astute, published an article entitled, “Is This the Evangelical Deep State”? Drawing parallels to the “Deep State” – an assortment of entrenched bureaucrats without ties to … Read more
In December of 2014, we launched #the15 when Ed Stetzer said that we were “just the same 15 angry Calvinists mad at everything.” By the time it was over, thousands of Arminians and Calvinists were tweeting with the hashtag #the15 in wide-sweeping support for discernment. With that social media wave, Alex Malarkey joined #the15 and … Read more
Well, the financial solicitation letter newsletter for Worldview Weekend has made its way out to their supporters, and to a few people who are not supporters, which is why we have it. It has all the doom and gloom, Elijah-complex sensationalism that one would expect from any ministry selling survival supplies. You may not know … Read more
It’s not the Babylon Bee satire site. It’s just another day in the life of Steven Furtick. Fiction couldn’t be any more absurd than the reality at Elevation ‘Church.’ Furtick released a video in which he exposits his relationship with Alexa, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant created and marketed by Amazon. In what appears to … Read more
Dear Reformed African American Network, I saw your open letter of rebuke to Lifeway. To introduce myself, you can consider me the proto-critic of Lifeway. Do you remember #the15? That was me. Do you remember Alex Malarkey’s open letter to Lifeway that was the biggest news story in the world for two days in 2015? … Read more
DEFINITION The Evangelical Intelligentsia are those who purport to be smarter or more distinguished academically than most local church leaders. Typically, the Evangelical Intelligentsia consists of those not in exclusive ministry to local churches, serving instead academic institutions or parachurch ministries. HISTORY Peter Berger coined that phrase in The Emerging Evangelical Intelligentsia Research Project done for … Read more
I started this journey nearly five years ago. Who was I? I was a nobody. No one knew who I was. There were no “anti-JD” protest blogs. There were no “anti-JD” twitter or social media accounts. There were no angry feminists, survivor blogs, antinomians or spiritual ne’er-do-wells ranting and raving about me. Heck, there was … Read more
Or who is killing the SBC? It’s Dave Miller. No, not that Dave Miller because he’s awesome. This Dave Miller. The Company Man™. That’s who is killing the SBC. Well, not really The Company Man™ per se. To us at Pulpit & Pen, Miller is just an archetype. He’s an exemplar. He’s the quintessence, the embodiment, the epitome … Read more
Christians should strive to avoid what the Bible calls “filthy lucre” (1 Timothy 3:3, 1 Peter 5:2). Filthy lucre, as the King James calls it (or shameful gain as the ESV has it) amounts to financial increase, money or payment that has come through less-than-godly means. The nationwide Powerball lottery could reach as high as … Read more
This post should not be confused with the Top Ten SBC Stories of 2015. That post covered the top ten stories, in my subjective opinion, that were conveniently overlooked by the Baptist Press and the amen corner of the blogosphere. This post recalls the top ten posts at Pulpit & Pen in 2015, by views. … Read more
