So, Brian Simmons: Are You An Apostle Or Not?

The following post features the first part of an exchange between me and Apostle Brian Simmons. See Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.Apostle Brian Simmons actually responded to a review I wrote of his new translation of the Bible, the Passion Translation. Yet, as you will see, his response shows poor reasoning, shoddy scholarship, and even apparent deception.But first let me provide some brief background to my exchange with Simmons. I recently wrote a four-part series on my blog, critiquing the Passion Translation, produced by New Apostolic Reformation apostle Brian Simmons. In addition to my posts, I also wrote a critical review of Simmons' latest installment of The Passion Translation--which he titled Letters From Heaven by the Apostle Paul--over at Amazon.com.To my surprise, Simmons responded to my Amazon review. Yet, he failed to adequately address even one of the five critiques I raised. In fact, I thought his response was so inadequate that I felt it was important to reply to it not only in the Amazon discussion thread, but also to share my reply with my readers here at Spirit of Error.Since my reply to his response is lengthy, I will break it up into bite-sized pieces in a series of posts. Here is my Critique No. 1., which I conclude with some questions directed personally to Brian Simmons.Critique No. 1 of The Passion TranslationIn my Amazon.com review, I pointed out that Simmons calls himself an apostle and is associated with the New Apostolic Reformation movement. In his response, Simmons said that he does not refer to himself as an apostle.But this response seems disingenuous at best. Perhaps Simmons does not directly refer to himself as an apostle.  Yet he sure seems to believe he is one—and he has led others to believe the same.In his personal profile posted on Linked In, he states that he is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA). View his current profile. The members of the ICA are all identified as apostles. See the requirements for ICA membership.Also, multiple advertisements for Simmons’ speaking engagements refer to him as “Apostle Brian Simmons.” For example, see this advertisement for an event he did less than a few weeks ago at Glory City Church in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. And see this advertisement for another event in April at Saginaw Valley Community Church in Michigan. And here is another advertisement for an event last October at Regeneration Church in Bethpage, New York. Notice that they all refer to him as “Apostle Brian Simmons.”So, the questions I address directly to you, Mr. Simmons, are these: “Are you an apostle or not? If you are an apostle, then you should not play word games and seek to mislead people in your response to my review. And if you are not, then why did you accept membership in the ICA? Also, if you are not an apostle, then why do you allow others to refer to you as an apostle?"(Author's comment added on June 18, 2013: Notice that since I wrote this post last week, Brian Simmons deleted his profile at LinkedIn, which showed that he is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles. He also deleted his response to my critical review of his Passion Translation at Amazon.com. I can only assume that my critiques hit the mark. See my post about his actions here.)

-- By Holly Pivec