I was quoted on TBN, positively, about Revelation

If you follow my social media channels, you likely already saw this. I am honored and perplexed. Here’s the video to check out! Thank you World Impact with Billy Wilson!

The quote comes from my varied work on Revelation. I have an archive of work on Revelation here at Patheos as well as a great book/commentary list at my resource site.

After seeing this episode, I’m hopeful for a shift in evangelical Christianity. TBN has been known for promoting one form of eschatology over the years, that of Left Behind or dispensationalism. But here we have a pentecostal leader who is proclaiming a different vision! That should give us great hope.

And yes, I think that I still struggle with the mix of programing on TBN as a whole. I’m not within their target audience.

And yes, I do have a big issue with Creflo Dollar and the “prosperity gospel” teachings that TBN is also willing to support and air. Prosperity teaching is not the way of Jesus, at all.
(Which, it seems to me, that Revelation 17 and 18 would rebuke most church ministry justified luxury jumbo-jet seekers as idolatrous spiritual adulterers… at least if it is done with church money in the name of God… To be clear: being rich in and of itself isn’t wrong.)

But I do want to call out ‘the good’ when I see it. (And not just because I happened to be quoted, although this is the reason that I know about this positive shift).

That is my vision for the church as a whole. I’m tired of division.

What if the first thing we did, instead of calling out areas of disagreement (which are obvious and easy to find), was to call out the good in those who are different?

That is the posture I take, while taking with FULL seriousness when something is either anti-orthodox or anti-kingdom. We should seek to urge correction where needed–especially when certain teachings actually cause harm (like prosperity teaching)–but we should be able to hold many things with open hands.

Then, when we see TBN allowing for a voice like Billy Wilson to teach a different vision of Revelation (and, I am not suggesting that we have identical viewpoints, at all), we can celebrate the good.