Steve Lawson preached fire and brimstone except for himself

“Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies,” I wrote back on June 25 after Tony Evans and Robert Morris stepped away from ministry at prominent megachurches. Apparently “starting” was the keyword because over the next three months, the number of Dallas pastors in the news tied to scandal or controversy has grown to 16.

Although a few of these pastors still have their jobs, the list includes:

• Brian and Jamie Hackney — both resigned after Josiah Anthony was accused of “inappropriate communication with women”
• Byron Copeland — unclear, but was named in a 2023 civil rights lawsuit alleging he “backed (the plaintiff) into a corner of the room they were in and threatened to fire her if she didn’t shut up and stop stirring up drama”
• James Morris — stepped down after his father’s resignation
• Josh Howerton — repeatedly telling sexually coercive jokes and belittling women from the pulpit
• Josiah Anthony — “inappropriate,” “excessively personal,” “sexual in nature” communication with women
• Kemtal Glasgow — “moral issue”
• Luke Cunningham — charged with sexual assault of a child
• Matt Chandler — hired his father as a janitor without notifying the church of his father’s confession to sexually abusing a child
• Robert Morris — sexually assaulting a 12 year old girl
• Ronnie Goines — charged with indecent assault and sexual assault
• Scott Crenshaw — viewing “inappropriate content” online, his second firing for this since 2016
• Steve Lawson —having an “inappropriate relationship … with a woman”
• Terren Dames — charged with soliciting prostitution
• Tony Cammarota — “moral failure”
• Tony Evans — “fell short of that standard”

In the latest story, Steve Lawson was fired from Trinity Bible Church of Dallas due to what the Trinity elders called “an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman.” Lawson is one of the most influential leaders in the complementarian Calvinist wing of conservative evangelicalism. He also lost his position as dean of doctor of ministry studies at The Master’s Seminary, which is led by John MacArthur. And his information is currently being wiped from other ministry websites such as The Gospel Coalition and Ligonier Ministries.

What we know or don’t know

The statement from the Trinity elders says: “Effective immediately, Steven J. Lawson has been removed indefinitely from all ministry activities at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas. Several days ago, the elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas were informed by Steve Lawson of an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman. The elders have met with Steve and will continue to come alongside him and pray for him with the ultimate goal of his personal repentance. Steve will no longer be compensated by Trinity Bible Church of Dallas.”

The statement is consistent with announcements about other pastors in that it doesn’t say much at all. What does “inappropriate” mean? Has there been an ongoing sexual relationship? Is it texting? Is the woman a church member? Is she a legal adult?

The problem with vague statements like this is that it makes it impossible for us to have any kind of deeply informed discussion about how to solve these problems or hold people accountable without filling in blanks and throwing out hypotheticals. Then when we do, the church can call us gossips for speculating about details.

“By withholding specifics, they seem to want to stifle any conversation about it.”

By withholding specifics, they seem to want to stifle any conversation about it. And thus, they control the narrative and protect themselves. And perhaps protecting themselves has less to do with doing the right thing and more to do with protecting themselves against legal trouble or making sure they can continue moving forward with their building plans.

On the home page of their website, just below the announcement about Lawson’s removal is a link to the church’s plans to purchase a new location. “Over the past six years our Lord has continued to provide for the growth of our church in amazing ways sometimes beyond our imagination,” the elders wrote. And what happened six years ago? That’s when Steve Lawson became their pastor.

So when they want money to build, they talk about how Lawson’s successes are “beyond our imagination.” And when Lawson gets fired, they leave the specifics up to our imagination.

A theology of dehumanization

Thankfully, there is much we can know about Lawson that affected his inner posture toward his church members and his neighbors.

The fact that he was the dean of D.Min studies for John MacArthur, who says slavery is “the perfect scenario” and who threatened church discipline against a woman who divorced her husband who was convicted of child molestation and abuse, should tell you everything you need to know.

But Lawson belongs to a very scary group of double-predestination Calvinists whose theology destroys their humanity. While preaching at MacArthur’s conference for pastors, Lawson said: “Jesus isn’t coming to save. He’s coming to slaughter. He isn’t coming to deliver. He’s coming to destroy and damn.”

It’s not merely that Lawson believes in hell that’s the problem. But listen to how detailed he gets in his description of what he thinks humanity will experience.

“Everyone in hell is screaming and crying out as they are in this lake of fire, in this furnace of fire as they are under torment as though they are stretched out on a rack to the breaking point, yet never breaking,” he imagines. “And this word ‘torment’ in the original Greek language refers to the rack or instrument of torture by which one is forced to give an answer. The stretching rack that they would put a body on and, ‘We’re going to get the answer out of you one way or another and we’re gonna tighten the screws and we’re gonna stretch you out until you tell us what we need to know.’”

“This may shock you. But God will be in hell and God will be the one inflicting the wrath.”

And how will this predetermined plan of God affect us and the ones we love? Lawson declares: “Unsaved husbands will be separated from their saved wives. Unsaved children will be separated from their parents. Unsaved parents will be separated from their saved children. Many people will no longer see their loved ones again. This may shock you. But God will be in hell and God will be the one inflicting the wrath.”

And what exactly will this separation be like, according to Lawson? “Those in hell are thrown almost as if they’re being thrown into an active volcano and find themselves submerged in the red hot molten lava that is spewing out of the volcano, yet with this new body able to stay alive and not be consumed,” he says. “People are literally baptized in fire. They are immersed in fire. They are swimming in fire. They are engulfed in fire, yet never able to swim out of the lake of fire. They are forever preserved in this lake of fire. They are drowning in fire with the wrath of God inflicting pain from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet to every extremity in their body forever and ever and ever. … They will be roasted alive, yet they will never be able to die. They will be sustained in a resurrection body. God will give them a body that will be perfectly suited to their new environment. There will be a new body for souls in hell that will be perfectly adapted to the fiery furnace. … One’s mind will never be more active and alert and sharp than when they are in hell. They will never be more fully alive than when they are in hell. Forever in their mind they will be replaying the entirety of their life in the torment of their memory and be haunted by the remembrances of the fool that they were.”

Lacking compassion

How can a parent possibly imagine celebrating in song a God in heaven who is inflicting that kind of torture on their children? How could anyone possibly retain their humanity and sing songs about God roasting their partner in lava as justice?

How could you believe your neighbors deserve this and not have it affect your posture toward them? It’s no wonder a minister who used to work with Lawson told the Alabama Baptist that Lawson didn’t have a “compassionate spirit” and that Lawson thought everyone who didn’t agree with him “could not comprehend the gospel.” Perhaps that’s because his gospel is incomprehensible.

Not only does Lawson’s gospel show God violently torturing children for eternity while they’re screaming and swimming on a stretch rack in a volcano, but God chooses to torment everyone in this life as well.

In the American Gospel: Christ Alone documentary, Lawson said: “God ordains and wills all … suffering, calamity and disease and death. … God was the one who said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job?”

So in Lawson’s world, God wills all suffering and even suggests to Satan which of God’s children should be stricken with boils and have their kids killed, after which, God will likely burn them forever. And all this is happening while Lawson and the parents experience pleasures forever more at the right hand of God and sing songs about how God has brought forth justice on their foolish kids.

What kind of sadistic universe is this?

Concern for ‘falling men’

Don’t forget: Lawson also believes in a hierarchical reality where men are at the top. As his previous boss John MacArthur once said, the pastorate is “the highest location” one can “ascend to — that power in the evangelical church.”

The evangelical pastor is the one who tells the church what they think God is like and who warns the church about what God might do to them if they don’t get down on their knees in front of God. And given how sadistically violent they believe their god to be, it’s understandable that they’d have a lot of fear wrapped up in protecting the high place of the man who is meant to warn them about it all.

“Hardly anywhere is anyone expressing concern about the woman being abused.”

As I’ve watched the responses of conservative evangelical pastors to the news about Lawson, it has been interesting to note how many of them post sadness about Lawson “falling,” and warnings to other men not to “fall.” But hardly anywhere is anyone expressing concern about the woman being abused. And that’s exactly what this is. A pastor, especially a complementarian pastor, is in a position of authority over the women in his church. So having an “inappropriate relationship with a woman” is actually abuse.

According to Texas Penal Code 22.011, a pastor who has sex with a parishioner is guilty of sexual assault “if the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person’s emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman’s professional character as spiritual adviser.”

Of course, we don’t know whether this woman is in his church because their elders are protecting themselves by being vague. But whatever the case, concern for this woman is virtually nowhere to be seen.

All the language is about a man “falling,” which is a hierarchy image when you remember their theology of the pastorate as “the highest location” one can “ascend to.”

Fear of women

In one interview, Lawson warned, “There are young men who are trying to get as close to the edge and as close to the fire and are abusing their liberties in Christ and their freedom in Christ. And they’re becoming singed with the fires of lust. And they will not be used by God. Now, they may have good looks, and they may be able to maybe blend in with the culture and connect and be a cool communicator. But the power of the Spirit of God will not rest upon that life, nor that ministry. So that is why purity is absolutely essential.”

In other words, these men are terrified of women. They all wake up believing in a God who plans to torture those they love on a rack in a volcano for eternity. They think they’re the ones who are called to rescue the children from their God. And yet they have one problem.

“These men are terrified of women.”

A penis.

Many penises get turned on. And it often happens at inopportune moments. So these guys walk around desperately trying not to think about their penises, lest they get turned on and put the souls of everyone they love in danger of being tortured by God for eternity should they “stumble” or “fall.”

This is why the popular book Every Young Man’s Battle called teenage girls, “Bouncing breasts that mosey by.”

It’s why CJ Mahaney, another disgraced complementarian Calvinist pastor, once read a letter that said: “Each and every day on campus is a battle… . I’m thankful God has created me to be attracted to women. However, campus is a loaded minefield. There are girls everywhere. And it’s guaranteed that I will pass some attractive girls as I walk in-between classes. I either have to be actively engaging my mind and my spirit to be praying, quoting Scripture, listening to worship music, or simply looking at the sidewalk to make it through unscathed.”

When your sermons are about fearing sex and sacralizing power over women and kids, don’t be surprised when that theology bears the fruit of sexual abuse or abusing your position for sex. When all the concern is about a male pastor “falling,” it has the effect of increasing fear of women, which justifies the control of women.

How theology shapes entitlement

The first response of many people when pastors have inappropriate or abusive relationships with their parishioners is to say they’re hypocrites. Of course, conservative evangelical complementarian theology doesn’t give a pastor permission to do these things. And yes, their theology says they’re in sin. So when I connect their behavior to their theology, conservatives often think I’m overplaying my hand and say that if these men really followed their theology, they wouldn’t do those things.

But that’s a pretty naive reading of how their theology affects their actions. The problem is how their theology of hierarchy forms their inner posture toward one of entitlement and how their theology of fear forms their inner posture toward one of insecurity. Insecure entitlement produces abusing one’s power. These dynamics are especially true regarding sexuality and their relationship to women. And that fits exactly with the fact that sexual abuse isn’t about being too helplessly aroused. It’s about entitled power. It’s about seeing and taking.

Next man up

In the statement released by Trinity Bible Church elders, they try to offer hope. “Jesus Christ will continue to lead his church, including Trinity Bible Church here in Dallas, just like he has from the start of this work on January 5, 2018,” they wrote. “Since that time, the elders have focused on the primacy of biblical exposition knit together by various men filling the pulpit each week. The Lord was building Trinity Bible Church of Dallas well before Steve became our lead preacher, and he will continue to build this church long after Steve Lawson, or any other man for that matter.”

In other words, they think they can just switch out Lawson for some other man because they have a seemingly endless supply of men ready and willing to accept “the highest location” one can “ascend to — that power in the evangelical church.”

In their minds, it’s like when a football player breaks their leg and the cart comes out to whisk them away prior to the next play. There’s no need to question the team, no need to examine what happened too thoroughly. You can just offer a vague statement and then move on to the next strongman who can effectively scare the hell out of everyone unless they bend their knee.

Hell for you, hiccup for me

As is often the case when pastors get caught in sexual scandal, they tend to use coded language in the sermon before their firing as a form of damage control, knowing they’re about to be exposed.

In Lawson’s final sermon, which he preached on Sept, 15, he said: “And you should not judge a man by his one weak moment. You need to look at the whole body of his work. You need to look at his whole message. You need to look at his whole ministry. And don’t judge him on one hiccup that happens.”

It would be insulting our common sense to think he didn’t know what was about to happen. Yet he chose to ascend to the pulpit to preach as the authoritative representative of God anyway. And given how he described the sin of others in such exquisite detail as deserving of being stretched on a rack and thrown into a volcano to roast and writhe forever, it’s pretty ironic that when it comes to his own sin, he downplays it as a hiccup.

Hopefully, we won’t be hearing Lawson’s voice any time soon, if ever again from a pulpit, given the dark violence he spreads when he stands there. But perhaps we should give him the final word on this day.

Lawson likes to tell people that when they’re in hell, they’ll remember everything they once said and did. So now that he’s in a hell of his own making, as he quietly stands in front of his mirror, perhaps he can look into his own eyes and remember what he once told sinners in hell during one of his sermons. “You had your day. You had your time. You had your moment. And you squandered it.”

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.