The Remnant Radio's Podcast

If a book promises to give you the heart of God while quietly replacing His words with someone else's, that's not a translation. It's a trap. And the trap has a paper trail.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
The Passion Translation has been endorsed by some of the most influential voices in the charismatic world. Bill Johnson called it the best thing to happen to Bible translation in his lifetime. It's been sold in Bethel's bookstore, read in prayer rooms, and handed to new believers across the movement.

David Fish and JonMark Baker of the Minor Prophets Podcast spent weeks comparing the Passion Translation, line by line, against its claimed sources. What they found isn't a matter of interpretation. It's documented.

Where Brian Simmons departs from the Greek text, and claims an "Aramaic" source, the renderings don't match the Peshitta, the actual Syriac New Testament. They match the Mirror Bible, The Message, and other fringe paraphrases. Fish found over 300 instances in Paul's epistles alone. Simmons also claimed co-translator credentials on a Kuna New Testament. Ethnos 360, the mission that ran the project, says he was NEVER a Bible translator. The organization's own personnel said so on record.

The second half of this episode goes deeper: into Simmons' theology. In his own words, in multiple recordings, he redefines the second coming of Christ as an unveiling of a glorified end-times people rather than a bodily return. He calls the physical second coming "not in the Bible." He says, directly: "Christ is no longer a person. He is now a body, a corporate expression." That's not a slip. That's a system, and it has a name: Manifested Sons of God theology has a long history in the fringe of the charismatic world, and Brian Simmons is teaching it from the platform the movement handed him.

Join us to hear the evidence for yourself as fellow continuationists examine the paper trail.

0:00 – Introduction
3:55 – Plagiarism Discovery Explained
5:53 – Examples of Copied Verses
8:16 – Why Simmons Changed Text
12:07 – Lessening Judgment: John 15
13:29 – Is Simmons a Universalist?
16:46 – Simmons' Fabricated Credentials
18:44 – Ethnos360 Exposes Simmons
20:01 – Manifested Sons Theology
37:21 – "I Know When Jesus Returns"
57:58 – "I Am My Lover" Clip
1:06:35 – "Christ Is No Longer A Person"
1:14:26 – Closing Thoughts

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
- The Minor Prophets/Mike Winger episode:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9--owgBjtA
- Andrew Chapman's Research: https://theriveroflife.com/category/the-passion-anti-translation/
- Mike Winger's Research on The Passion Translation: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHuv-ISp_iIw1WL8zaEm86L8 and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHvXha4rjCj1Po0WLQc_jGGW
- Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament — G.K. Beale https://a.co/d/09nG966Z
- Typology-Understanding the Bible's Promise-Shaped Patterns: How Old Testament Expectations are Fulfilled in Christ - James Hamilton https://a.co/d/01jQgVDW
PETITION:
Sign the petition to request YouVersion remove the Passion Translation: https://www.change.org/p/an-appeal-to-youversion-to-remove-the-passion-translation/psf/membership-ask?experience=member&allow_actions=true
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The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.
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Most Christians think the debate over spiritual gifts comes down to one question: do they still happen or don't they? Dr. Vern Poythress, 50-year New Testament professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, says both cessationists and continuationists are asking the wrong question. 

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
Dr. Poythress proposes the term "analogous gifts" — the idea that the gifts of the Spirit are genuine, Spirit-empowered works modeled after Christ's own prophetic, priestly, and kingly ministry, but subordinate to it. Not identical to what the apostles did. Not a lower-tier substitute. Analogous with the same Spirit, the same source, a different level of authority.

This reframing has real stakes for the cessationist/continuationist divide. The tension in the body of Christ right now isn't just academic: it's shaping how whole churches think about prophecy, tongues, healing, and what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Dr. Poythress argues that if Gaffin is right about New Testament prophecy being infallible, that doesn't end the conversation, but just moves it. There's still a genuine, non-inspired, Spirit-empowered gifting that needs to be accounted for. And if Grudem is right, continuationists still need to reckon with what discernment and testing actually look like in practice.

Joshua and Dr. Poythress also discuss the history of cessationism, why it developed as a response to Roman Catholic claims, how the Reformation fought on two fronts (Rome and the enthusiasts), and why figures like Samuel Rutherford and even C.H. Spurgeon complicate the neat cessationist narrative. The episode doesn't try to solve the debate. It tries to widen the table.

0:00 – Introduction
0:44 – Guest: Vern Poythress
3:05 – Analogous Gifts Explained
14:52 – Cessationism vs. Completionism
20:34 – Canon and Prophecy
30:06 – Puritan Prophesying Language
44:04 – RC Sproul's Voice
53:15 – Pursuing Spiritual Gifts
59:09 – Closing Thoughts

GROW IN THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT PLAYLIST: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsjeViSScFGpsFnIkPFAIzI4BFoAy3zQ

ABOUT THE GUEST:
"What are Spiritual Gifts?" by Dr. Poythress https://frame-poythress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/PoythressVernWhatAreSpiritualGifts.pdf
Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.
Support the show
ABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: 
The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.
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Rowntree's Church

What if the Old Testament prophets weren't just messengers who received words from God, but participants in His heavenly court? That's the proposal Dr. Michael Heiser put forth in his works on the divine council. The Remnant Radio explores this perspective, walks through the texts, and works out what it means for how we think about prophecy today.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Dr. Michael Heiser put forth the interpretative framework that the Old Testament prophets participated in Yahweh's divine council, and access to that court is what distinguished the genuine prophet from the counterfeit. The claim from The Unseen Realm: "True prophets have stood and listened in Yahweh's divine council; false prophets have not." 

Heiser's proposal focuses on the word sōd, appearing in Jeremiah 23:18 as the sōd YHWH, "the council of Yahweh," and describes what the Hebrew Bible presents as Yahweh's heavenly assembly. Jeremiah deploys it as the credibility test for prophets: the genuine ones have stood in it. The false have not. If that reading is right, the prophetic calling in the Old Testament was more than hearing a message from God. Rather, it was about access to the divine council - admission into the throne room of God. 

The concept finds support across multiple texts. Amos 3:7 declares that God does nothing without first revealing his counsel to the prophets, and the council scenes throughout the Hebrew Bible show a relationship that is consistently dialogical. Isaiah is caught up into the council of YHWH so that he can give an answer. He doesn't passively receive a scroll. He's present in a scene (seraphim, a throne, a voice asking "Who will go?"), and he responds. 

This idea matters for the body of Christ right now. The continuationist world is navigating real questions about prophetic legitimacy, accountability, and what it actually means to carry a word from God. Heiser's framework gives us a biblical-theological foundation for those conversations that goes deeper than most of what's currently in circulation. If the sōd YHWH is the dividing line between true and false prophecy in Jeremiah 23, that has implications we haven't fully worked out yet.

This episode walks through the key texts and what it means for how we think about the prophetic today.

0:00 – Introduction
3:05 – Divine Council Overview
10:44 – Prophets in the Council
14:26 – Adam, Enoch, Noah
17:55 – Moses and Prophets
20:51 – Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah
23:41 – True vs. False Prophets
32:46 – New Covenant Implications
43:56 – Democratization of the Spirit
45:33 – Warning: Heavenly Travel

PLAYLIST OF DR. MICHAEL HEISER EPISODES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsjeViSScFGvabVTMdkZJffia17pz7Cv
Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.
Support the show
ABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: 
The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.
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Bethel Church released a NEW statement via email addressing the controversies and scandals involving their organization and the people they've endorsed and promoted. 

We've been consistent on this: the charismatic movement needs internal voices willing to evaluate its most influential organizations with theological honesty. Tribal loyalty doesn't serve the people who've been hurt. And reflexive dismissal doesn't serve the people who are genuinely trying to find their way forward. Both are too easy.

So we're reading the statement. We're weighing what's there. We'll do our best to call balls and strikes, and give you a framework for evaluating it yourself.

Our hope is that this conversation helps you think through what genuine accountability and repentance look like in a public Christian context and what we should actually expect from leaders and organizations when things have gone wrong.
0:00 – Introduction
0:35 – Shawn Bolz Allegations Overview
6:14 – Kris Vallotton's Response
8:05 – Bethel's Statement 
14:15 – Governance & Leadership Review
25:39 – Accountability & Safety Update
33:26 – Wider Culture Ministry Review
42:49 – Platforming & Reinstatement Policy
52:05 – California Privacy Law Concerns
POLICING THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsjeViSScFHSZqA1Q85VKxRrkvEYXBec

ABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO:
The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.

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Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.
Support the show
ABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: 
The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.
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The question isn't whether the lights in the sky are real. It's what doors you're actually opening when you go looking for them.

Something strange has been happening at the intersection of UFO culture and spirituality. People are gathering in the dark, meditating in circles, performing rituals, and then pointing cameras at the night sky and calling it contact. Steven Greer has built an entire ecosystem around it with documentaries, paid expeditions, and a protocol he calls CE-5 or Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind. And long before Greer, a man named Albert Bender was sending telepathic transmissions into space from a room he'd converted into a chamber of horrors, complete with an altar.

What is the Christian response? Many believers aren't sure how to engage the UFO conversation without dismissing it entirely or getting pulled into frameworks that are functionally occult. This episode names that tension and gives you a theological map to navigate it. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. His strategy is not to appear monstrous, but to appear luminous, benevolent, and higher. The CE-5 framework, examined through that lens, looks less like a spiritual frontier and more like a very old deception wearing a new coat of paint.

And underneath all of it? The desire is real. People want to know they're not alone. That contact with something higher is actually possible. That desire isn't wrong — it's just aimed at the wrong door. John 10:9: "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved."

0:00 – Introduction
0:53 – Albert Bender's Origins
2:47 – World Contact Day
5:40 – Steven Greer & C5
9:18 – Benevolent ETs Claim
13:26 – Prophet Yahweh's Hoax
15:21 – Genuine UAP Phenomena
17:07 – Demonic Spiritual Danger
20:06 – The Gospel Answer
Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com.
Support the show
ABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: 
The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.
📧 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
📚 COURSES & CONFERENCES
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💝 SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY:
• Leave a Tip
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 🌐📧 Check Out Our Church Pages
Josh's Church
Miller's Church
Rowntree's Church