God Is Not A Theory

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Putty Putman to revisit a message that struck a nerve at the recent Luminosity conference leaders’ luncheon—one so many attendees asked about that they brought it to the podcast.

Putty names the moment the church finds itself in: a painful reckoning across the body of Christ, especially in charismatic streams, alongside a wider culture sprinting away from the things of God. For decades, he argues, the American church’s strategy has been to build a Christian subculture—a Christianized version of American life, with the gap between church and culture kept small. That approach reached many, but it leaves the church with an impossible choice as the culture moves: drift along with it, or recover its calling to be a counterculture. Drawing on Jesus’ own words—a city on a hill, salt, light—Putty lays out what that requires.

In this conversation:

• The dual reckoning: scandal within the church and a culture moving away from God

• Subculture vs. counterculture—and why the subculture strategy has run its course

• What happens to a church that aligns itself to a shifting culture

• Why looking like Jesus means standing out—a city on a hill, salt and light

• Standing out without becoming a provocateur

• Counting the cost on the front side, not as a bait-and-switch

• Why a “halfway walk with Jesus” won’t sustain a countercultural life

• How being different, paying the cost, and deep roots interlock

• A call to leaders: go first, then pour it into everyone who will listen

The day of the Christian subculture has passed. We either learn to be a counterculture—or we disappear.

📅 Hear Putty Putman, Ken Fish, and more at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA. Click here to register: https://healthehealersconference.com/

Connect with Orbis Ministries

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📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Dr. Craig Keener—one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars—to discuss his new book, Spiritual Gifts Are for Today: A Biblical Case for the Continuing Work of the Spirit, co-written with Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations.

Written in response to the recent wave of hard cessationism, the book makes a thorough, scripture-saturated case that the gifts of the Spirit are for the church today. Craig and Joel walk through its boldest arguments: why the cessationist hermeneutic, applied consistently, would also throw out teaching, salvation, and the Great Commission; why 1 Corinthians 13 points to Christ’s return, not a closed canon; and the “apostles and oranges” confusion between apostleship and the writing of Scripture. 

In this conversation:

• Why Craig and Daniel Kolenda wrote the book now

• How the cessationist hermeneutic, applied consistently, collapses

• Why 1 Corinthians 13 points to Christ’s return, not a closed canon

• “Apostles and oranges”—apostleship vs. the writing of Scripture

• Whether apostolic “foundation-laying” continues today

• The strongest argument for cessationism—and the biblical answer

• Persistence in prayer, and why some healings are real but not rapid

• Navigating scandals and falls with a sound biblical framework

• Keeping a cutting edge in the Spirit while working in the academy

Don’t throw out the gifts because some misuse them—correct the abuse, and earnestly seek the gifts, because the God who gives them is not a theory.

📅 Hear Dr. Craig Keener and Ken Fish together at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA. Look it up online to register.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor are joined by Dr. Sam Storms—theologian, author, and longtime pastor—for a careful, substantive conversation about the doctrine of last things: what Scripture actually teaches about the fate of the unsaved.

Together they define the terms and weigh the views: eternal conscious punishment (the historic position), annihilationism and its modern form conditional immortality, and universalism. Drawing on texts like Matthew 25 and Revelation 14, Sam makes the biblical case for the traditional view while engaging the strongest arguments on the other side with honesty and charity. The conversation keeps returning to a deeper root: nearly every theological error flows from a misconception about the nature of God—and much of modern theology has quietly turned into anthropology, exalting human feeling over God's revealed Word.

In this conversation:

• Defining the terms: eternal conscious punishment, annihilationism, conditional immortality, universalism

• The key texts—Matthew 25 and Revelation 14—and how "eternal" is used

• Why most theological error traces back to a misconception of God's character

• How modern theology turned into anthropology—human feeling over God's Word

• Why "hyper-grace" and a one-dimensional view of love open the door to universalism

• Whether annihilationism logically collapses into universalism

• John Stott's honest struggle—and why emotions can't be the standard of truth

• Holding conviction with charity toward fellow believers who differ

• Why biblical immortality isn't the same as Plato's immortality of the soul

Don't let your preferences be the final word—submit your heart to the authority of Scripture, because bad theology hurts people.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor sit down with Dr. Joshua Brown—neuroscientist, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and author of Proving a Miracle: Unlocking the Power of Prayer to Heal.

Josh shares the story that set him on this path: at 30, days after his first child was born, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given little medical hope. What followed was a years-long pursuit of healing prayer—and, eventually, a clean scan. That journey turned a hard-nosed brain scientist into a careful investigator of divine healing, and this conversation models how faith and rigorous inquiry can work together rather than against each other.

In this conversation:

• Josh's journey from a brain-tumor diagnosis to a clean scan

• What actually counts as a "miracle"—and why precision builds credibility

• How placebo and mind-body effects work (and where they break down)

• Scientific vs. historical ways of investigating a healing

• The randomized clinical trial of prayer—and what it found

• Why the hard questions should come from inside the church

• Confirmation bias—and guarding against it without losing faith

• How our beliefs are shaped by experience, not just Scripture

• A brief, candid detour into UFOs, trauma, and discernment

Not everything is a miracle—and if everything is, then nothing is. Precision about what God has done makes the testimony stronger, not weaker.

📅 Hear more from Dr. Joshua Brown and Ken Fish at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA: https://healthehealersconference.com

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Kady Taylor welcome back Jerame Nelson—revivalist, evangelist, and pastor of Rev Church, who has seen millions come to Christ in the nations—and a returning speaker at the upcoming Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

Jerame shares from a year marked by revival, international crusades, and remarkable creative miracles, and senses another move of God stirring. But the conversation goes deeper than the miraculous. Against the backdrop of recent falls and exposures in ministry, Jerame and Ken talk candidly about responding rather than reacting, refusing hero worship, and why solid foundations, real discipleship, and consecration born of love—not legalism—are the way forward.

In this conversation:

• A year of revival, international crusades, and creative miracles

• Responding rather than reacting to falls and exposures in ministry

• Overcoming hero worship—anchoring faith in Jesus, not people

• Why the enemy targets and "falsely promotes" a cracked foundation

• Discerning a true word of knowledge from a "familiar spirit"

• Why the coming move needs a manifestation of love, not just power

• How Jesus discipled the unlikely—and tested them by sending them out

• Consecration born of love, not legalism—and the fear of the Lord

• Conviction vs. condemnation—and how to tell the difference

Fall so in love with Jesus that you'd never want to grieve His heart—that's where holiness begins.

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

❤️‍🩹 Healing service September 30 | NOW AT FULL CAPACITY - the service portion of the evening will be livestreamed and available online here.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Kady Taylor welcome back David Taylor—a seasoned prophet, longtime friend of Ken's from their Fuller Seminary and Vineyard days, and a returning speaker at the upcoming Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

With more than 50 years of prophetic experience, David brings hard-won wisdom to this year's theme of consecration and holiness. Reflecting on the recent shaking in prophetic ministry, he and Ken talk honestly about the temptations that derail prophets—fear of failure, insecurity, the craving for affirmation, and financial pressure—and the way back: the fear of the Lord, integrity, and relationships that keep us grounded. David also opens up about his own prophetic journey, the character-forging wilderness years, and the encounters that marked his calling.

In this conversation:

• The temptations that derail prophets—and the way back to integrity

• Isaiah 32: "the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands"

• Why relationship, not just "accountability," keeps us grounded

• David's prophetic journey—from conversion at 18 to the wilderness years

• Angelic encounters, visions, and how common they are among prophets

• How to grow in hearing God—the discipline of listening

• The five-fold ministry pictured as a sailing ship

• The life of Joseph: "tested until it proved him true"

• Living the long game—a seed that must fall and die to bear fruit

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

❤️‍🩹 Healing service September 30 | NOW AT FULL CAPACITY - the service portion of the evening will be livestreamed and available online here.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish is joined by Grant Pemberton, Kady Taylor, and returning guest Melissa Chalhoub—a prophetic minister whose heart is to help people discern the voice of God with accuracy, humility, and love, and a speaker at the upcoming Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

After several painful years of exposure and upheaval in prophetic ministry, this conversation asks the honest questions: What is God doing in the midst of it all? What is the enemy after? And how do we reform the prophetic without throwing it away? Together they hold two things at once—unflinching honesty about the abuse, hype, and lack of accountability that have wounded so many, and a deep conviction that genuine prophetic ministry heals, sets free, and points people to Jesus. Melissa shares candidly about her own journey and about learning to trust God's voice even through the smallest details.

In this conversation:

• What God is doing—and what the enemy is after—in the shaking of the prophetic

• Why the prophetic heals, sets free, and points people to Jesus

• The "commercialization of the Holy Spirit" and the need for accountability

• "The answer to abuse is never neglect"—reforming without quenching the Spirit

• Acknowledging the pain of those wounded by prophetic abuse

• How every believer can learn to hear God's voice

• Melissa's own journey with the prophetic

• The role of discernment—and asking God for it

• Hosting the presence of God and "bringing back the ark"

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

❤️‍🩹 Healing service September 30 | NOW AT FULL CAPACITY - the service portion of the evening will be livestreamed and available online here.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Dr. Craig Keener—one of the world's leading New Testament scholars and a returning speaker at the Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

Bringing deep knowledge of Scripture together with a genuine hunger for the Holy Spirit, Dr. Keener unpacks this year's theme: consecration and holiness. He shares how he came to see holiness not as legalism or externals, but as loving God so much that nothing else compares—a burning, consuming fire. Drawing on the biblical language of light and glory and his firsthand experience of the 2023 Asbury outpouring, he describes a holiness that is deeply joyful: God's presence made accessible, His grace not only forgiving sin but transforming us into the image of His Son.

In this conversation:

• Holiness as loving God above all—not legalism or externals

• The biblical language of light, glory & the cloud of God's presence

• Dr. Keener's firsthand experience of the 2023 Asbury outpouring

• Why grace is about both salvation AND transformation

• How word and Spirit belong together

• Walking and being led by the Spirit day by day

• "Consecrated in Christ"—already set apart, called to live it out

• How one generation's revival can become the next's legalism

• The awakening the church needs in this hour

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

❤️‍🩹 Healing service September 30 | NOW AT FULL CAPACITY - the service portion of the evening will be livestreamed and available online here.

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Church Planting, Discipleship & the Grace to Be Holy | Ken Fish, Jimmy Seibert & Joel Taylor 

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Jimmy Seibert—leader of Antioch Waco and the Antioch Movement, one of the most effective church-planting movements in the Western world, and a speaker at the upcoming Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

Jimmy shares how the movement grew out of a full surrender as a young believer and a conviction that the local church is meant to both house and multiply the glory of God. The conversation ranges across world evangelization, why believers buy the lie that they aren't needed, and how partnering with God to reach every people group helps prepare the way for Christ's return. At its heart, it's about intimacy with God as the source of everything—"it takes God to do the work of God"—and why consecration and holiness are themselves a grace: power over sin, not just forgiveness of it.

In this conversation:

• How the Antioch church-planting movement grew out of full surrender

• "A church for every 1,000 people"—and why the US is underserved

• Why the enemy's great lie is that you're not needed

• Partnering with God to "hasten" Christ's return (Matthew 24:14)

• Reaching the next generation through heart, home, and shared mission

• Discipleship that empowers rather than creates dependence

• Maturity as taking responsibility for your own walk with God

• Consecration and holiness as grace—power over sin, not just forgiveness

• Why you can't set others free until you've been set free

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)❤️‍🩹 Healing Service: September 30 at Franklin Vineyard

🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

What does it take to live your faith out loud in a culture that resists it? Ken Fish and Joel Taylor sit down with Casey Harper—D.C. journalist, host of The Outstanding Podcast, managing editor for broadcast at The Washington Stand, and a speaker at the upcoming Luminosity conference (Nashville, Oct 1–3, 2026). Register: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

From his vantage point between the White House and the Capitol, Casey shares his journey from small-town East Texas to the front lines of faith and public life. Together the three explore a recovered theology of persecution "for righteousness' sake," why a healthy faith must be able to stand even when the church is weak, the difference between partisanship and faithful engagement in the public square, and how personal consecration builds the fortitude to do the right thing under pressure. It all ties back to the conference theme—consecration and holiness—and Casey's striking word from Joel 3: "consecrate for war," a call to spiritual preparation, not violence.

In this conversation:

• Casey's journey from East Texas to faith and public life in D.C.

• What makes living your faith "out loud" so challenging today

• Recovering a theology of being "persecuted for righteousness' sake"

• Why a mature faith can stand alone—without abandoning community

• Partisanship vs. politics in the public square

• How consecration builds inner fortitude

• "Consecrate for war" (Joel 3)—preparation for the days ahead

• The example of Perpetua and the great cloud of witnesses

• Hope for a generation looking for something real

Register for Luminosity

📅 October 1–3, 2026 | Nashville Area (Bethel World Outreach Church)❤️‍🩹 Healing Service: September 30 at Franklin Vineyard

🎟️ Register today: https://kingdomluminosity.org/

Connect with Orbis Ministries

🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/

❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give

Grow with Orbis

📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish

🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at [email protected]

💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.

🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.

Upcoming Event

Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA

💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49