Prosperity Theology Comes To The SBC

Justin Peters

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:05

Welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Justin Peters. I hope that this finds you and your family doing well today.

00:11

I want to thank you so much for joining me for this podcast. Well, prosperity theology is alive and well today, and I am not referring to the

00:21

Word of Faith movement, not referring to the New Apostolic Reformation, or the Charismatic movement in general, not this time.

00:28

Unfortunately today, I am referring to the Southern Baptist Convention. Now, softer versions of prosperity theology, unfortunately, percolate in pretty much all denominations out there,

00:41

Southern Baptist Convention being no exception. But today I'm going to bring to your attention a particularly acute and egregious and grievous example of prosperity theology within the

00:55

SBC, a denomination that is not at all known for, at least theoretically, preaching or practicing prosperity theology.

01:05

But it does exist, to be sure, in some of the uppity -ups, the powers that be within the

01:12

SBC, absolutely. I'm going to bring to your attention today an example at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

01:21

Now, let me say up front, this is not to smear at all

01:27

Southwestern. I'm not talking about the faculty members at Southwestern, rather I am referring to the former president of Southwestern Seminary, and as we'll see as we get a little further into this video, the trustees.

01:43

But the former president is a man named Dr. Adam Greenway. Adam Greenway was elected as the ninth president of Southwestern Seminary in February of 2019 at the age of 41, which made him the youngest man ever to be elected as president of Southwestern Seminary.

02:04

In full disclosure, Adam and I know each other. In fact, we were students together at Southwestern Seminary back in the day.

02:14

We knew of each other. I graduated with my Master of Divinity from Southwestern in 2000.

02:20

He earned his Master of Divinity in 2002, so I was a couple of years ahead of him.

02:26

But we did know each other. Now, we were not friends. I would say barely even acquaintances.

02:33

We would speak to each other briefly, maybe if we passed each other in the hallway or something, but we didn't know each other well, just kind of a little light chit -chat once in a blue moon is really about it.

02:44

But he does know who I am. I know who he is. I have no idea how to get in touch with him. But at any rate,

02:52

Adam was not only the youngest man to be elected as president of Southwestern Seminary, but he also unfortunately holds the not so desired distinction of having the shortest tenure as president of Southwestern Seminary.

03:08

He was the ninth president, and the tenth, of course, is Dr. David Dockery. He holds that position now.

03:15

Adam only held his position for about three and a half years, which is very, very, very short for a president of Southwestern Seminary.

03:25

Most of the presidents there served at least for 10 tens on the short end to 20, maybe even 30 years.

03:33

So a very, very short tenure. In fact, he resigned September 22nd of 2022, and I'll just read this to you what he said in a press release that was widely reported at the time.

03:47

He said, quote, These days are incredibly challenging in the life of our denomination, said

03:52

Greenway. They are also challenging times for academic institutions, particularly theological seminaries.

03:59

In February of 2019, Carla, his wife, and I accepted the call to come back home to Southwestern Seminary with an understanding of these challenges, but also with a strong desire to be part of the solution.

04:12

What we failed to appreciate was the enormity of the reputational legal and financial realities that would welcome us to the dome.

04:20

That's a reference to Southwestern Seminary because of the well -known dome there in the main building.

04:26

Only to be compounded by a global pandemic, unlike anything we have ever experienced before.

04:33

We have done our best to serve Southern Baptists by helping position our seminary for the future, but much, much work remains to be done.

04:40

Nevertheless, in the providence of God, we sense a release from our duties here.

04:47

So this was September 22nd, 2022. And then the next day, Adam, Dr.

04:53

Greenway made a statement. He announced that he was going to serve in a new position at the

04:59

IMB, the International Mission Board. Greenway spoke about this and he said, quote,

05:05

We will continue to serve Southern Baptists as we have throughout the course of our lives and ministry. Greenway said, we believe our next assignment is not a departure from, but a continuation along the journey

05:17

God has always had us walk. We are thrilled that we are going to help prepare Southern Baptist missionaries for their work of addressing the world's greatest problem, spiritual lostness, with God's solution, which is the gospel of Christ, he added.

05:31

As we look forward to beginning a new chapter with Southern Baptist's favorite entity, the International Mission Board, we ask for your prayers for us in this season of transition, and we pledge our continued prayers and support for our beloved crown jewel, referring to the

05:47

IMB. Then just five days later, five days later,

05:52

September 28th, Adam made this statement. Carl and I are grateful for the many expressions of care and concern that have come our way since our transition from service at Swibbets Southwestern was first announced.

06:08

While we initially thought our path would take us to the IMB, we have not been able to find the

06:14

Lord's peace to move forward in that direction. We covet your prayers for ourselves and for our children as we seek the

06:21

Lord's direction regarding his next vocational assignment for us.

06:26

So in just five days, things changed dramatically.

06:32

He was going to take a position at the International Mission Board, and just a few days later said mysteriously, we no longer feel the

06:39

Lord's peace about that. Well, dear friends, it had nothing to do with the

06:46

Lord's peace. It had everything to do with gross financial improprieties and opulent, lavish spending of seminary money.

07:01

And if you are a Southern Baptist attending a Southern Baptist church who gives your money to your local church, lavish spending of your money.

07:12

Because there was a report that came out this past week. So in the fall of 2022, after Adam Greenway resigned, a task force was commissioned to review some of the expenditures that Adam Greenway undertook, that he commissioned himself as president for the president's home and then his office.

07:37

So if you're a president of Southwestern Seminary, you live in a house called

07:43

Pecan Manor. It's a house that's right there on campus within almost literally a stone's throw to the main building there.

07:52

So the president, whoever he is, he and his wife and family live in Pecan Manor.

07:58

And then the president, of course, has an office in Pecan Manor, but he also has his main office there on campus in the main building there.

08:09

And so there was a lot of renovations and expenditures that people could obviously see was going on during his short tenure.

08:18

And so Southwestern put together a task force to review some of these expenditures after Greenway resigned.

08:25

And this report was made known. Now, interestingly, Adam said on April 20th, 2023,

08:33

Adam said this, I look forward to the seminary fulfilling its promise of transparency to Southern Baptists by releasing the full trustee investigative report, including all related findings without edit or redaction.

08:47

I trust that all Southern Baptists will then be able to judge for themselves the veracity of the summary narrative presented in the seminary's press release.

08:55

So Adam was getting a lot of criticism. People were raising a lot of questions about the financial proprieties or lack thereof of his spending during his short tenure.

09:10

And Adam said that he is looking forward to the release and full transparency of this detailed report because people he believed were speaking ill of him and smearing him.

09:22

And then he says here on May 17th, he says, quote, Greenway and his defenders have said privately if trustees are going to impugn his record as president, they ought to give supporting evidence.

09:35

But eight months later, no details have been provided. That was in this particular article in Baptist News.

09:41

And Adam kind of doubled down. He said, to be fair, I said it publicly, but the point remains. In other words, don't impugn my character, don't impugn my record if there is no evidence.

09:54

And he says, basically, let's see it, you know, because I feel very confident that once these details are out, then my name will be cleared and and nobody can impugn my character anymore.

10:06

Well, those details have now been released. As of this recording last week,

10:12

Southwestern Seminary did indeed release the findings of this task force that was commissioned back in the fall of 2022.

10:21

And I'll put the link to this article down there below in the description so you can see it for yourself.

10:27

But let's run through this just a little bit. And I'm going somewhere with this, dear friends. And I want you to see this.

10:34

Now, notice at the top of the page, it says this is from the official release. Southwestern Seminary, the president shall have a direct charge of full supervision over and shall be responsible for all funds and properties of the seminary.

10:50

So this can't be laid at the feet of anyone else other than Dr.

10:58

Adam Greenway. So in his short tenure there, three and a half years, Adam Greenway spent seminary money on Christmas decorations to the tune of almost $60 ,000.

11:13

How do you spend $60 ,000 on Christmas decorations?

11:19

How do you do that? Well, somehow he did. $25 ,000 for artwork, $11 ,000 for an espresso machine.

11:29

Now I have bought my wife a couple of espresso machines. We've been married for 13 years and so they don't last forever.

11:39

So I bought a couple of them and they're kind of spendy, but nowhere near $11 ,000.

11:48

I mean, not even close, not the ones I'm aware of.

11:54

And she likes her espresso machines. She was very satisfied with it. Didn't cost anywhere near that, not even remotely.

12:00

Anyway, $180 ,000 on HVAC, heating and cooling, $180 ,000.

12:06

How do you do that? And then the seminary employees. So if you're familiar with Southwestern Seminary, the students, there's a lot of the students there that work there on campus.

12:18

Some of them have office jobs in different departments or whatever, but a lot of the students work on the grounds crew.

12:26

They work in the shop. They're painters, they're plumbers, they're electricians. They work on the grounds, they're grounds crew.

12:34

They work in the flower beds and all this kind of stuff. And these blue collar jobs are called, we refer to them as the blue shirts because that was their uniform.

12:44

They wore blue, kind of almost a baby blue shirts with the

12:49

Southwestern logo on them. So very much blue collar work there.

12:55

And we called them the blue shirts. Well, the blue shirts, and by the way, I had a job at Southwestern Seminary too.

13:02

I was a dispatcher for campus security. Obviously I couldn't work in the flower beds, but I could answer a phone and do dispatch for security.

13:10

So I did that, but my shirt was gray. But anyway, the blue shirts, quote, were often asked to do the same job multiple times to meet

13:19

Greenway's demanding expectations. So the morale amongst the blue shirts was very low because they would be called in by Adam Greenway to do the same job over and over and over because apparently their work didn't rise up, didn't meet his level of expectation.

13:38

Spent $10 ,000 for first -class airfare to Anaheim, California for the 2022

13:46

SBC annual meeting for Adam and his family.

13:52

I believe he has one or two children, not a big family. So Adam, his wife and one or two children, then

14:00

I think someone else, but $10 ,000 for first -class airfare from DFW to Anaheim, California.

14:09

Now friends, $10 ,000 for what? A two hour flight, two and a half, maybe two, two and a half hour flight, maybe.

14:19

And you got to go first -class to the tune of $10 ,000 when you could buy coach ticket for probably three or 400.

14:31

Unbelievable. And friends, I'm going to say something that it may sound self -serving or like I'm patting myself on the back.

14:41

I promise you with a crystal clear conscience before the Lord, I don't mean it that way. But I, as an evangelist,

14:49

I fly all over the world and I fly the longest flights that there are in the world.

14:56

I have flown to African countries, Australia, New Zealand, India, the

15:03

Philippines, Fiji, some of the longest, if not the longest flights that there are,

15:10

I've been on. And you know what? I fly coach and you know what?

15:16

I make it, I fly coach and I do so with cerebral palsy. It can be done.

15:23

Yeah. First -class is nice. Sure. I mean, you can lay all the way back and you know, like you're laying in a bed and sure you get, you know, nicer meals and stuff like that.

15:33

But it is exponentially more. And the reason I don't fly first -class, it is exponentially more expensive to do so.

15:41

Now, if you want to fly first -class on your own dime, if you have the funds to do that, hey, and that's fine.

15:49

Great. But to use seminary money to do that for a two and a half hour flight tops, two and a half hours, really?

16:00

I mean, long international flights, they can be 10, 12 hours long, maybe even 13 hours long.

16:06

But you got to have first -class to fly from Texas to California, really? And to use seminary money.

16:12

Now, when I say seminary money, please understand that is money that as a, if you're a

16:18

Southern Baptist and you attend a Southern Baptist church, he's using your money to do this.

16:26

Your money that you have given to your church, that your church in turns gives to its state

16:32

Baptist convention, which in turn gives it to the cooperative program, cooperative program money.

16:39

All of that is distributed to the various Southern Baptist entities, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, and Lifeway.

16:50

Well, Lifeway theoretically is its own standalone financially, but whatever. And then the six

16:56

Southern Baptist seminaries. So your money that you give out of your pocket, when you write a check to your church, that filters down and it goes to, at least part of it goes to the

17:08

Southern Baptist seminaries, one of which is Southwestern and Adam Greenway. So he was using cooperative program money that is ostensibly given to fund missions while he's using it to buy first -class plane tickets from Texas to California.

17:26

It's just, it's unreal. That is beyond the pale. And then $4 ,850, almost $5 ,000 for framing, for framing his diplomas.

17:42

When I saw that, my mouth dropped open. I didn't even know you could spend almost $5 ,000 on a frame.

17:52

What kind of frame shop sells frames for $5 ,000? I mean, even if it's a custom frame job, which

17:58

I'm sure it was, but I didn't even know that was possible to spend that kind of money. He has spent in total, this report says $1 .5

18:08

million, $1 .5 million on renovations, furnishings, and related expenses to the president's home,

18:19

Pecan Manor, where if you're a president of Southwestern Seminary, that's where you and your family live.

18:25

And then you have your office. Speaking of his office, he spent half a million dollars, $500 ,000 on his office.

18:34

I don't even know how you do that. How do you spend half a million dollars on an office?

18:43

It is unbelievable. And think about this too.

18:49

The president, as president, you're living in Pecan Manor. You have no expenses.

18:57

Adam Greenway doesn't own that home that he's living in. Southwestern Seminary owns it, but he lives there.

19:03

That's his home for however long he's president. And yeah, if you want to make some changes here and there,

19:10

I understand that kind of stuff, but $1 .5 million, half a million dollars on your office.

19:17

He doesn't even pay the light bill. The seminary pays for all of the expenses. He pays no property taxes on it.

19:25

He doesn't pay his light bill. He doesn't pay the water bill. None of those. He has no expenses and still managed to spend in three and a half years, $1 .5

19:38

million. Unbelievable. Of your money.

19:46

Prosperity theology is indeed alive and well within the SBC. And it was so ironic.

19:54

When he was still president, you would see him regularly. And I have some screenshots here. He would post pictures of Southwestern Seminary.

20:03

He seemed particularly fond of posting pictures of the dome at night. You know, I love the dome, this kind of thing.

20:09

Well, I bet he did. He was living high off the hog at the dome.

20:17

No expenses. Unbelievable. Using your money, if you're a Southern Baptist, using your money to fund lifestyles of the rich and famous.

20:26

And all the while, I mean, how ironic. Let's go back to what he said when he resigned. Remember this? When he said, what we failed to appreciate was the enormity of the reputational, legal, and financial realities that would welcome us to the dome.

20:42

Failed to appreciate the enormity of the reputational, legal, and financial realities.

20:48

There is no one's reputation who is more damaged now than Adam Greenway's.

20:55

And he's talking about the daunting financial realities that the seminary faced.

21:00

All the while, he is spending money like a drunken sailor. It's unreal.

21:08

Unreal. And the whole time this was going on, Southwestern Seminary's enrollment was plummeting.

21:15

Now, to be fair, the decline in Southwestern Seminary's enrollment didn't begin with Adam Greenway.

21:21

It began 17, 18 or so years ago, right about the time, actually, well, maybe 20 years ago, right about the time

21:31

I graduated, the enrollment started to drop. But it increased precipitously under Greenway's tenure.

21:40

And Southwestern Seminary, when I was a student there, was the largest Southern Baptist theological, in fact,

21:45

I think it was called the largest theological seminary in the world. Certainly the largest of the six

21:52

Southern Baptist seminaries. There's six of them, and Southwestern was the largest. Now, I believe it is the fifth largest.

21:59

I think it's next to the smallest because the enrollment has gone down that steeply.

22:06

And while that enrollment was going down, Greenway was also firing faculty members. According to a former

22:13

Swivitz philosophy professor, Dr. Travis Dickinson, he said, quote, by my count within the first year of Greenway's presidency, 40 faculty members were cut in two rounds less than a year apart.

22:27

His administration was still cutting as of this summer, bringing the count up to 46.

22:33

So Greenway was firing faculty members because of budget constraints, supposedly, while he is doing $1 .5

22:44

million worth of renovations and projects, many of which had to meet his exacting standards, $1 .5

22:53

million on luxury, $11 ,000 espresso machines, $5 ,000 worth of framing for your personal diplomas, while he is firing faculty members who have families that they are trying to feed.

23:12

And in doing all of this, all of this opulent spending on something that he doesn't even own,

23:20

I mean, I wish I knew what his salary was. He had no expenses, no expenses.

23:28

No, he has a six -figure salary. Exactly what that six -figure salary is, I don't know, but a six -figure salary.

23:36

And spending this kind of money, this kind of opulence, $5 ,000 worth of frames for your personal diplomas, $11 ,000 espresso machines, and flying first class, you and your family, doing all of this, spending this kind of money, all the while cutting faculty members, cutting their salaries, and doing it, spending this kind of money, cooperating, your money,

24:04

Mr. and Mrs. Southern Baptist, your money, spending, all the while, these poor blue -shirt students, and when

24:12

I say poor, I mean literally poor, these young men and some young women who are students at Southwestern, and they are working many of them, two, sometimes even three jobs, and going to classes, and writing papers, studying for exams, doing all this, serving in churches, working two, some of them even three jobs, just to make ends meet so they can pay their tuition, pay their books, pay their room and board, put food on the table for their spouses, and some seminary students for their children.

24:52

And Greenway, living it up. I just, that is atrocious.

25:00

Now, you tell me, what is the difference between that lifestyle and Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland?

25:09

Now, granted, Adam Greenway is not promising poor people that God will make them wealthy if they give him his money, or sick people,

25:19

God will heal you of cancer if you send in your money. He's not making those kind of promises that you find in the word faith in AR circles, granted, but as far as a lifestyle, there's no difference.

25:33

Telling people to give to the Lord's work, Benny Hinn says that, give to the Lord's work, absolutely appalling.

25:42

Now, I've kind of beat up on Adam Greenway, rightly so, but here's the thing.

25:51

People noticed, you can't do $1 .5 million worth of renovations to Conn Manor and to your office without people noticing.

26:04

I know the faculty member noticed. I mean, everybody could see what was going on. The blue shirts could see, everybody could see what he was doing, but the faculty members don't have any control over the president, but the trustees do.

26:24

The trustees do, and I think there are 45 members of the board of trustees of Southwestern Seminary.

26:32

They knew what was going on. They had to see it. I know they did.

26:38

There's no way they didn't. Now, they may not have known the full extent.

26:45

They may not have known down to the dollar amount, but everybody could see. They could see the opulence that Greenway was enjoying, and there's no way they didn't.

26:57

So all that to say is not only is Adam Greenway culpable, the board of trustees is culpable too, because they could have put a stop to it, and they didn't.

27:09

So this is going on at Southwestern. I hear supposedly they're making changes.

27:17

My goodness, they ought to, but how much of this is going on at the other

27:23

Southern Baptist seminaries? I don't know. I know the presidents get paid well, and I'm not against being paid well for honest, hard work, but this kind of stuff, folks, that's beyond the pale.

27:36

It is utter hypocrisy for the Southern Baptists to teach against the prosperity gospel, health and wealth theology, when this kind of stuff is going on in their own camp.

27:53

So the annual meeting is this week, and boy, there are a ton of issues in the

28:00

SBC, a ton. It's not just women preachers. That's a massive issue too, because there are reports now, well over a thousand churches in the

28:11

SBC have female pastors serving in pastoral roles.

28:17

That's an issue. You've got churches that are blatantly heretical in both their orthodoxy and what they teach and what they practice.

28:29

You've got churches like Church of the Glades that is a goat farm.

28:35

You've got First Baptist Orlando that is baptizing homosexuals, even allowing homosexuals to baptize people in their own baptistry.

28:42

You've got that going. You've got almost wholesale capitulation on SSA. You've got all kinds of stuff going on.

28:50

It's a mess. It is a mess. And not to mention the plagiarism scandal of Ed Litton, and Ed Litton being hosted by at least five of the six

29:03

Southern Baptist seminaries, not the least of which Southwestern Seminary, Adam Greenway, inviting a plagiarist, a serial plagiarist to come in and preach at chapel, at the seminaries, and Adam Greenway hosting

29:19

Ed Litton and giving him an interview and letting Ed Litton lie, bald -faced lie, to all of those seminary students and before God himself, lie about his plagiarism and documented irrefutable plagiarism.

29:37

He says it wasn't plagiarism. Of course it was plagiarism. If any of those seminary students, any of those blue shirts or any other seminary student had done a fraction of one percent of the kind of plagiarism just that we know about from Ed Litton, the former president of the

30:00

Southern Baptist Convention, those seminary students would have been kicked out on their ears, and rightly so.

30:09

And yet, Ed Litton, president of the SBC, is invited with warm, welcome, open arms from,

30:21

I would say, at least four, and I think five of the six seminaries. I think there was one seminary, at least one seminary, that did not invite him to come in and preach at chapel, but most of them did.

30:33

Southwestern did, and Adam Greenway just gave him a platform and let him lie, bald -faced lie, in front of the students and before God.

30:42

Just on it, the hypocrisy, it's just stunning.

30:48

And for so many, I hate to say this, but for so many in the SBC, not all, not all, there are some good

30:57

SBC pastors. There are. There are some good, good SBC pastors. Some of them are friends of mine, and I love these men.

31:05

But for so many in the SBC, their loyalty is not first and foremost to Christ.

31:12

Their loyalty, sadly, and I don't see how you come up with any other conclusion than this, but their first loyalty is to the

31:22

SBC. It's to the machine. And they invited this plagiarist, a serial plagiarist and liar, to come and preach, to preach in their chapel services, in front of their students.

31:36

Unbelievable. I was speaking with a former professor at Southwestern Seminary just last night as of this recording, and I told him,

31:48

I won't give you his name, but I told him, we were talking about this, and I said, you know, I have, I actually believe that one day

31:55

I will stand before God. I will stand before a risen Christ with eyes of flaming fire and feet of burnished bronze, and I will have to give an account for what

32:06

I have done with the time and the resources that Christ has entrusted to me.

32:12

I'll have to give an account. I don't fear God. I don't fear God's wrath eschatologically because that's been taken care of in the atonement, so I don't fear the wrath of God, but I do fear that day when

32:24

I will stand before him and have to give an account. I'm not going to give an account to a board or to a denomination, to a committee.

32:34

I'm going to give an account to Christ, and we all say we believe that. We say we do, but my goodness,

32:42

I wonder how many of us actually believe it. So, all right, dear ones, maybe not the most cheery video, but I think it was important to deal with this, and so you can know, especially if you're

32:56

Southern Baptist, you know what's going on, and do with it as you will. Let your conscience be your guide.

33:05

Okay, thank you very much, dear ones. Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of his