Comparing Steven Furtick To REAL Pastors!

Comparing Steven Furtick To Real Pastors By The Same Standard

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video.

So in a recent video, in fact my latest video, I talked about Steven Furtick's stance on controversial issues. And those issues included homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion. If you haven't seen that video, I highly recommend you go watch that first, and then come back here so you get a little bit more context.

It will be linked in the description. In that video, I found that Steven Furtick had virtually no public opinion on any of those pivotal issues, despite the fact that Paul himself condemns a list of twenty sins in Romans chapter one alone.

This pattern of rebuking the sin of the fleshly culture is found all throughout the New and Old Testaments. In 2 Timothy 4 .2, it clearly says that pastors must, quote, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching, end quote.

But of course, Steven Furtick's ministry is continuously found utterly lacking in any sort of reproof, rebuke, or exhortation. Go figure. That's what happens when you seem to care more about the popularity and growth of your church than you do about telling the truth of God's word.

There's really no other way to put it. But some people may respond to the previous video that I made and say that I'm being unfair to Steven Furtick, and that I'm holding him to a different standard that I don't hold other pastors to because I have some sort of personal grudge against him.

So in today's video, I just want to test that little theory. In this video, the very same standard that I applied to Steven Furtick is now going to be applied to pastors I actually respect, pastors that I've listened to many times.

So let's see if I've been unfair on this topic to Steven Furtick, shall we? Let's review a list of five pastors so that we know we've got a good sample size. Several of these pastors were on my non-exhaustive list for some of my favorite pastors to listen to.

I've enjoyed all of them. Check that out in the description. Also, I just want to say that when I use these pastors for this little research project I'm doing, it doesn't mean that I agree with absolutely everything they teach or that I don't have some small differences, although I do believe that these are all good men of God.

So without further ado, let's review five pastors by the very same standard that we used on Steven Furtick. First, we have John MacArthur. I used Google to look up, quote, John MacArthur on abortion. And immediately, there were readily available teaching resources in which he condemned it.

The same thing happened when I looked up his views on homosexuality or transgenderism. Here are the screenshots that demonstrate that fact. About abortion, MacArthur said this, quote, to sum up what we are experiencing with regard to abortion in America, we could simply say that America as a nation is highly committed by law and by practice to a form of mass murder, end quote.

About homosexuality, MacArthur said this, quote, one of the supreme tragedies of our time is the declassification of homosexuality as a sin, end quote. About transgenderism, MacArthur said this, quote, simply stated there is no such thing as transgender.

You're either XX or XY. That's it, end quote. Second, I looked up R .C. Sproul's perspective on two of these issues, and the results came back with, again, multiple statements and resources rebuking each of them as sin.

Here are the screenshots to prove it. About abortion, Sproul said this, quote, I really can't imagine society sinking much lower than that. It amazes me that it's tolerated, end quote. About homosexuality, Sproul said this, quote, if somebody comes and they want me to perform a same-sex marriage, I'm going to tell them no, I can't, end quote.

Third, I looked up Votie Bauckham's opinion with regard to these issues, and Votie, as per usual, well, he did not mince words at all. He has public statements regarding all three of these controversial topics.

Here are the screenshots of just two of them. About abortion, Votie said this, quote, Christ, through his incarnation, verifies the sanctity of human life at every point, from conception to natural death, end quote.

About homosexuality, Votie said, quote, homosexuality is a sin. The Bible makes it very clear that it is a sin, end quote. Fourth, I looked up what Paul Washer had to say about these things, and of course, because he's a very faithful man of God, there were several public statements that he had made condemning these things as perverse.

Here are the screenshots for you of two such instances. About abortion, Washer said, quote, I believe that abortion is evil, end quote. Very simple. With regards to homosexuality, Washer told a story about sharing Christ with a dying homosexual man whose name was Ron.

In that story, he said, quote, Ron was a homosexual, and all I knew was that Ron needed Jesus, end quote. And fifth, I looked up what Charles Spurgeon had to say about these things, and of course, it's very hard to find statements from him on abortion or transgenderism, because those issues were not prevalent in his day in the same way they are now.

Spurgeon was a Baptist minister born in the year 1834. But nonetheless, I easily managed to find quotes related to the topic of abortion, which Spurgeon probably would have called something like infanticide, and the topic of homosexuality.

About abortion, Spurgeon said, quote, heathenism is cruel. It has not changed in character since the days when parents made their children pass through the fire to mull it. At this very day, for instance, infanticide prevails in China, end quote.

About homosexuality, Spurgeon said this, quote, concerning homosexuality, this once brought hell out of heaven on Sodom, end quote. So I kid you not, ladies and gentlemen, Charles Spurgeon has been dead for almost 200 years now, and he's still more vocal about these relevant, sinful issues in our 21st century culture than Stephen Furtick is.

Let that sink in. This is the point in my video where many people will say something like this, but Colin, just because Stephen Furtick is silent on these issues doesn't mean he's in favor of them. You can't just make that argument.

And to that I would say this, you're absolutely correct, and I didn't make that argument. You see, in neither of my videos on this topic have I ever suggested that Stephen Furtick is in favor of any of these things.

That was never my point. Rather, my entire point has always been, and still is, that Stephen Furtick's silence on these important issues seems to be intentional, convenient, and done in bad faith. These videos are not meant as an all-encompassing, end-all, be-all argument against Stephen Furtick.

They are simply meant to be an additional piece of the puzzle, so to speak. I'm simply trying to show you a clear pattern. So just to be clear, if another pastor didn't have statements on any of these issues that I could find similar to Stephen Furtick, but he still showed a pattern of staunchly defending biblical truth in important, controversial areas unlike Stephen Furtick, I probably wouldn't think twice about him.

But Stephen Furtick's teaching reputation precedes him in a way that amplifies these concerns and really validates them. These things only serve to demonstrate what many people see as the clear pattern of Furtick's ministry, which is to focus on aspects of the Bible that we might call crowd-pleasers, and to stay far away from aspects of Scripture that may be seen as offensive or unpopular.

So in conclusion, virtually every doctrinally sound pastor that you could probably come up with has one of these two things. Either they have very clear public statements condemning sins like abortion, homosexuality, or transgenderism, or you can almost always make a solid connection from the pattern of their teaching at large to their beliefs about these specific issues.

So the question then remains, why on earth is it so hard for Stephen Furtick to make clear statements about this kind of stuff? Why is it so hard for him to clearly and consistently call out sin in a biblical way as a pattern of his teaching ministry?

Could it be that he wants to grow his church? Could it be that he wants more money? Could it be that he really thinks what he's doing is biblical and right? We may never know the real reason. But one thing we do know is this.

Regardless of the motivation behind his soft teaching, it is unbecoming of a pastor, and it casts even more doubt on his ministry at large. If you want a feel-good, inoffensive, culturally accepted sermon, go ahead and attend Elevation Church.

You can do that. But please, stop pretending that their ministry is operating biblically because it's quite obvious that they're not. Just read the Bible and watch Stephen Furtick preach. The fact is, if Stephen Furtick is held to the very same standard as John MacArthur, R .C. Sproul, Votie Bockham, Charles Spurgeon, and virtually any other doctrinally sound pastor, he comes up short in almost every possible area.

So I would encourage you to please find a church near you that has a real pastor behind the pulpit, not someone who teaches like Stephen Furtick. And please, let's all sincerely pray for Stephen Furtick that he would repent and turn to the truth of God's Word.

Until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.