Betrayed: More Details About Steve Lawson’s Double Life Revealed

Additional details are becoming known concerning the adultery and recent disqualification of former Trinity Bible Church pastor Steve Lawson. According to inside sources speaking to Protestia on condition of anonymity, the fixture in conservative, reformed evangelicalism was “living a double life in the heart of the reformed community.”

The young woman Lawson developed an “inappropriate relationship” with is an alumnus of The Master’s University (TMU). However, the two did not meet because of Lawson’s role as head of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master’s Seminary (TMS, which resides inside Grace Community Church, 17 miles south of the university), but due to her attendance at the church that housed the seminary where Lawson taught. Lawson served on the board of TMU, but this appears unrelated to his relationship with the woman, who had attended Grace Community Church as a child with her family, moved away, and returning to the area to attend college at TMU.

According to witnesses close to the situation, the young woman’s family was close to Lawson and supportive of his ministry. Lawson accepted the lead preacher position at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas around the same time the young woman graduated from TMU, and Lawson’s time away from home teaching expository preaching at TMS (as well as his frequent traveling for preaching appearances and conferences) provided both the proximity to the young woman and the distance from family needed to engage in what amounted to not just an affair but a secret second life that reportedly saw him paying for travel for the young woman to rendevous with him during ministerial trips.

While Trinity Bible Church and the various ministries Lawson was involved with (his OnePassion Ministries, The Master’s Seminary, Ligionier, G3, etc.) have been relatively silent on the particular circumstances of Lawson’s affair, sources close to the situation report that the illicit nature of the relationship between Lawson and the young woman was suspected as early as March.

Reports have publicly circulated of whistleblowers reporting their concern with Lawson’s interaction with the young woman only to face retaliation from authorities at both Grace Community Church and The Master’s University, but Protestia has yet to confirm the validity of such claims.

Any evidence that affiliated ministries or staff at Grace Community Church knew about Lawson’s double life has yet to materialize, yet Grace to You Executive Director Phil Johnson recently offered details that Protestia has been able to confirm from other insider sources, including the age of the woman, the length of the affair, and that she currently lives “nowhere close” to any of the ministries where Lawson served. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not Lawson and the young woman have ended their relationship, but she was not under Lawson’s instruction at either the Master’s University or the Master’s Seminary and was a legal adult at the time the adulterous relationship began. At this time, Protestia is choosing to keep the young woman’s identification private per her family’s wishes.

It is our ongoing position that repentance, healing, and closure for those harmed by Lawson (particularly in light of his apparent swift removal from public ministry) requires more transparency than what has been offered to date. This is a developing story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained language that could be have been interpreted to imply Trinity Bible Church, Grace Community Church, or other ministries may have had knowledge of Lawson’s affair as early as March, but the intent was to indicate that concerning behavior was observed with Lawson in March, and that these observations may have led to a process resulting in Lawson’s admission and firing in September. Reliable sources at both Trinity and GCC report that there was no suspicion of Lawson’s affair at either church or parachurch ministry.

You are correct to point out the fallacy of Calvinism.
It is very hard to pin them down and there are many versions and degrees of this extra-biblical superstition with which we try to deal with under the inclusive term “Calvinism”.

John MacArthur’s version is called “Lordship Salvation.” He reluctantly at last accepted this nomenclature or so I have been told. The idea is that if you believe the gospel without doing good works, then you are not really saved. The unfelt miracle power that makes you believe must also make you do good works and stop you from sinning. I do not know for sure if Lawson also accepted this version of Calvinism but it is a safe assumption.

If you “believe” but still sin, then you have what they call “head knowledge and not heart knowledge”. Obviously the Calvinists still sin just like any other Christians, but rather than accept that the position is false, they have to imagine some kind of work around. Here are some I have encountered:
1. You still sin but it better not be too bad of a sin.
2. You still sin but it better not last too long.
3. You still sin but it better not be at the end of your life.

About number 1, if the Holy Spirit allows believers to be doing certain acts then it is logical the He does not care. This notion crosses denominational lines.
-My Presbyterian pastor friend says he must be careful about preaching against drunkenness in his church because so many of his denomination do it.
-Jimmy Swaggart was doing his greatest healing and speaking in tongues while he was still committing adultery (Pentecostal).
-Jack Hyles had his greatest attendance during his affair with his secretary (IFB).

About number 2, we understand that Lawson’s affair lasted many years. Most Calvinists say that if you can go on and on for years without being exposed then you are lost. Lawson’s scandal is an opportunity to challenge the illogic of their systemic theology, especially since many of the Lordship Salvation adherents who sat under Lawson’s preaching and were so moved by it, must now entertain the suggestion that this whole time he never believed really. This is easy to do if you never heard him preach, but if you know him and heard him talk of the cross, you’ve got a problem.

About number 3, we all heard of the scandal of Ravi Zacharias which came out immediately after his death. As I understand MacArthur’s teaching, there is a practical effect of their doctrine of perseverance, that you must be living holy at the end of your life or you were never saved in the first place. The Arminian will just say that Zacharias lost his salvation at the end. The Calvinist will appeal to original hypocrisy and say he was never saved all along. This is fine if you never heard him, but if you listened to him talk of Jesus on the campus before a hostile college crowd, if you wept through one of his beautiful messages on the love of Jesus..., you got a problem.

I would recommend a YouTube Channel by a Southern Baptist, Leighton Flowers, a former Calvinist, who deals with these issues in complete detail, “Soteriology101”. He has not dealt with these scandals specifically, but you may find his take interesting. Let me know what you think.

Early MacArthur, sermon from 1973, I agree that he “evolved;” I wonder whether his close alliance with Lawson was part of that. I remember watching the Sunday broadcast several years ago where the livestream went private, and Lawson who was delivering the sermon that day, apparently publicly named a member of the congregation for discipline in front of the church. I may have seen that another time with JM himself presiding, but not often over the 9 years or so I’ve watched. Well back to the original point I was going to make, i agree he moved to ‘lordship salvation.” Whenever he talks about “counting the cost” before justification and indwelling by the Holy Spirit, he totally loses me. After 50 years, I’m still “counting the cost, “ and those are my moments of closest fellowship. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1750/is-salvation-by-law-or-grace-part-1

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