The underhanded tactics used by leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation movement--such as those used this week by apostle Brian Simmons--never cease to amaze me.My readers will recall my last post, where I challenged Brian Simmons' claim that he does not refer to himself as an apostle. To show that he actually does refer to himself as an apostle--or at least that he considers himself to be one and leads others to believe that he is one--I included a link to his LinkedIn Profile, where he said that he is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles. I also included links to three separate church Web sites that advertise him as an apostle.Well, since I wrote my post, he has removed his LinkedIn Profile. See it now. Fortunately, I took a screen capture before he did so. See it below.  Notice that, in the section titled "Brian Simmons' Additional Information" his profile states that he is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA). Since it may be a little too small to see on your screen, here is close-up version of that section of his profile.     I can only assume he did this because his LinkedIn Profile was clear proof that he does, indeed, consider himself to be an apostle, but he didn't want some people to know. It seems that we caught him on that point.What's even more telling is that, earlier today, Simmons also deleted his lengthy response to a critical review  I wrote of his New Apostolic Reformation Bible--the Passion Translation--over at Amazon.com. Here is the Amazon discussion thread after he removed his response. Notice the section that now stands empty except for the words "Deleted by the author 1 hour ago." And he also removed his response to another critical review written by Craig from CrossWise. Apparently, the responses posted by Craig and myself were so on the mark that Simmons didn't think his response could withstand scrutiny. Rather than answering the questions I posed directly to him, he decided to just delete his original response.Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to take a screen capture of his Amazon responses. Though I thought Simmons might remove his LinkedIn profile, it never crossed my mind that he would remove those, too. After all, he claims to be a scholar, and this type of behavior--that is, trying to cover up what one said in a public debate--is so foreign to true Christian scholarship.Yet, I shouldn't have been surprised that he would do something like this. By removing his LinkedIn profile and his Amazon responses, Simmons is demonstrating the type of deceptive practices that the Bible says characterize false apostles. In contrast to false apostles, the apostle Paul told the Christians in Corinth that he and his colleagues refused to engage in shady methods of ministry. In contrast, they acted with transparency and integrity.

But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:2

If anyone knows how to retrieve a cached copy of Simmons' original Amazon responses, I would be grateful if you could send me the images to post on my blog. Here is a link to the page on Amazon where they were posted until he removed them earlier today.

I hate to assume the worst about someone, but given the actions he has already taken I suspect he might repost his original responses with some substantial changes included to make himself look better.

-- By Holly Pivec

** Update: One of my readers was able to obtain an image of Simmons' response to my critical review, as it looked before he deleted it. See it below, and click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading. Thank you, Jeremy!**