Pastor Tony Evans of the Dallas megachurch Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship has announced that he’s stepping away from public ministry on account of sins he commited years ago, sharing in part on his church’s website:
“When we fall short of that standard due to sin, we are required to repent and restore our relationship with God. A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard. I am, therefore, required to apply the same biblical standard of repentance and restoration to myself that I have applied to others.”
…While I have committed no crime, I did not use righteous judgment in my actions. In light of this, I am stepping away from my pastoral duties and am submitting to a healing and restoration process established by the elders. This will afford me a needed time of spiritual recovery and healing”
With nary a hint to congregants or ministry supporters of what this entailed- did he engage in an adulterous sexual affair, cheat on his old wife with his new one, get filmed being a bully with anger problems, or pull a Matt Chandler and joke coarsely about alcohol with a woman he wasn’t familiar with- those answers do not seem forthcoming. For all we know he’s pulling a “Johnny Hunt” who famously argued that his own romantic entanglements with his non-wife were no one’s business but his own.
However, the most disappointing part of the announcement is not that it happened at all but that it took so long. Despite being a significant author and highly influential in evangelical circles, Evans should have been disqualified long ago for his numerous theological crimes, much less personal foibles.
Along with reaching preaching a very heretical view of the Trinity at the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention and hobknobbing with modalist T.D. Jakes, Evans, whose daughter is self-proclaimed prophetess Priscilla Shirer, is a social justice warrior who affirms and supports Critical Race Theory and recently was seen espousing standpoint theory when he capitalized on the color of his skin to sow seeds of discord in American evangelicalism by encouraging the racist, divisive protests against the Dove Awards.
More importantly, however, is that Evans a rank heretic whose heresies include (but are not limited to) Pelagianism (the denial of original sin), Inclusivism (you don’t have to be a Christian to be saved), and Limited Theism (the denial of God’s omnipotence).
In comments he made to Glenn Plumber at the National Religious Broadcasters’ Convention, and others, he elaborated on his pelagian view of Christ’s death and resurrection, stating:
But the thing that the death of Christ did was cover and overrule original sin so that no man is condemned because they are born in Adam, but men are condemned because they consciously reject salvation.
Evans also holds to inclusivism, that is, you don’t have to actually know Christ personally to be saved. In this same interview, Evans says,
If a person believes somebody’s up there that created this… I don’t know who He is but I want to know Him… if that person were to have a heart attack at that moment, God could not condemn him and be just because God says he who seeks shall find, so since God makes that promise, if God doesn’t give him the Gospel or give him a direct revelation then He has to judge him out of another dispensation.
He echoed this again in his book Totally Saved, where he writes:
“In the case of a person who never hears the gospel and never knows the name of Jesus, but who responds to the light he has, God treats that person like an Old Testament saint, if you will. That is, if the person trusts in what God has revealed, God deals with that person based on the knowledge he has, not the information he never received. I call this transdispensationalism.”
Evans is the one who made up the word, “Transdispensationalism,” and it is essentially just a rebranding of Inclusivism. John MacArthur said about this comment, “Obviously, there is no biblical defense for that, and none is attempted in the book—none. There isn’t even a verse to defend that. Furthermore, living up to natural human light, apart from the revelation of the true and living God, wouldn’t save anybody in any dispensation. But, it is a very—it is a very strange thing and, to this degree, to the degree that He gives salvation to those who have never heard the gospel, it’s a departure from what we believe the scripture teaches.”
Commenting on his failing, The Dissenter writes:
This vagueness is typical of celebrity pastors who generalize their sins and seek restoration without providing their followers with clear explanations. Evans’ admission mirrors the recent stepping down of Matt Chandler, who also stepped down for vague reasons, reflecting a broader pattern among high-profile church leaders who fail to uphold the standards they preach and are quick to enter an arbitrary “restoration” process that fast-tracks them back into the pulpit.
Evans’ decision to enter a period of spiritual recovery and healing, while necessary, leaves many questions unanswered. Public figures like Evans, who have built their ministries on the financial and emotional investment of their followers, owe it to their supporters to be transparent about their failings. The lack of specificity in these admissions only serves to erode trust and highlight the inconsistencies in the accountability structures within evangelical megachurches.
By all indication his pause won’t last long, and he’ll be back in the pulpit soon enough.
The post It’s About Time! Pelagian Inclusivist Tony Evans Pausing Ministry over Unnamed ‘Sin’ appeared first on Protestia.
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