# Minor Prophets — "And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God" (TPT) **Summary.** A [[Minor Prophets Podcast]] episode (with David Fish) argues The Passion Translation is not a translation but [[brian-simmons|Brian Simmons]]'s invented paraphrase, marketed as Scripture and quoted from pulpits as "the word of God." Its distinctive renderings allegedly smuggle Word-of-Faith / NAR "decree" theology into the text, so readers absorb fringe doctrine believing it is inspired. This is the third TPT source in the wiki and the one that most directly documents the **doctrinal-insertion → pulpit-recitation** pipeline. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.|And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.]]) --- ## Four evidentiary tracks 1. **Sourcing fraud.** Simmons allegedly works not from Hebrew/Greek but copies English paraphrases (the Message, NLT, Living Bible); his claimed "Aramaic" base was reportedly pulled from amateur websites. Dr. Mark Strauss is cited saying Simmons told him as much. (This corroborates and extends the plagiarism case already on the [[The Passion Translation]] concept page from [[2026-06-20-minor-prophets-is-the-passion-translation-finished|Minor Prophets — Is the Passion Translation Finished?]].) (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.|And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.]]) 2. **Fake accountability.** TPT advertises a "theological review team." The Roys Report (Daniel Silliman) reached reviewer Rick Wadholm (PhD), who said his role was **"simply to consult,"** with no editorial control. Endorsement quotes from Craig Keener, Mark Strauss, and Michael Bird imply approval, though all three repudiate the work — Keener calls the Aramaic basis a "fatal flaw." (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.|And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.]]) 3. **Undisclosed co-translator.** A Simmons Facebook page lists Candace Simmons as "lead translator" with no stated language credentials; BroadStreet lists only one. The episode includes her own account of becoming "his number one editor" by "changing a lot of things" — an uncredentialed hand reshaping a text the public trusts as expert work. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.|And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.]]) 4. **Doctrinal insertion — the decree.** Psalm 81:10 — ESV "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (God's wilderness provision) — becomes TPT's "Open your mouth with a mighty decree. I will fulfill it... The words that you speak, so shall it be." The hosts note **"the word decree is never once used in the Bible to refer to this. Brian has inserted it and now it exists."** This Word-of-Faith "decree and declare" theology is then chanted in Rod Parsley's church and quoted on Daystar as Scripture with no TPT attribution. Ephesians 3:17 ("by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released") and an Acts 1:8 Aramaic note extend the pattern, shifting agency from God to the believer. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.|And Pastors Are Quoting It as The Word of God.]]) > [!quote] > "Readers deserve to know when they are reading scripture and when they are reading commentary and when they are reading devotional interpretation." — a former TPT reviewer (the line TPT blurs) --- ## What this adds to the existing TPT thread The wiki already documents (1) TPT as the NAR's Scripture-distribution vehicle, (2) the traceable plagiarism (Younan→Roth→TPT; du Toit; Bauscher), and (3) the preaching-side propagation of the fabricated John 14 footnote ([[2026-06-23-how-the-passion-translation-changed-preaching|How the Passion Translation Has Changed Preaching]]). This source's distinctive contribution: - **The Psalm 81:10 "decree" specimen** — a clean, checkable example of Word-of-Faith doctrine manufactured inside the text, then quoted as God's literal words by Rod Parsley and on Daystar. It's the doctrinal-insertion counterpart to the John 14 "ends the curse" case already mapped. - **The "fake review team" documentation** — the Wadholm "simply to consult" interview and the Keener/Strauss/Bird repudiations sharpen the **endorsement-laundering** pattern already named in the concept page's fallacy section. - **The Candace-Simmons undisclosed-editor admission** — a primary-source clip of the uncredentialed co-editor, strengthening the credential-inflation critique. > [!contradiction] **"The word of God says..." vs. a human-written poem.** The hosts' framing hook: a devotional reader unknowingly absorbs "a pure invention of the translator" as Scripture, and a pastor recites a human-written English poem with the words "the word of God says this." TPT's design erases the line between Scripture, commentary, and devotional interpretation — the same self-authenticating move the [[The Passion Translation]] page maps onto the [[Apostolic Authority]] problem and [[Fallible Prophecy]]. --- ## Worship-team relevance (St. John's UCC) Reinforces the existing vetting flag: any song or liturgy quoting TPT — especially "decree"/"declare" language traced to the Psalm 81:10 insertion — is drawing on a theologically committed NAR source text, not a neutral translation. See [[worship-song-vetting-rubric-st-johns-ucc|Worship Song Vetting Rubric — St. John's UCC]]. ## Source Caution Polemical and one-sided — an in-house charismatic-discernment dispute, not neutral scholarship. The hosts state their own goal is to have TPT pulled and delisted from YouVersion and for promoting leaders to repent. Document-backed claims (the Harbor Light/Five-Fold disavowal, the Wadholm interview, the verbatim Psalm 81:10 text difference readers can check) are separable from inferred ones (motive, which Simmons wrote which insertion, BroadStreet's intent in silent edits). The textual evidence is the durable part; treat the imputation of dishonesty as the hosts' read.