UNIMAGINABLE Things Are Happening in TONS of Churches...

The Affective Principle of Worship and the Pressure to Be Nice

Here's the sad reality. Not only do we not talk in these terms, but for many of us, we don't even understand these terms or attempt to approach these terms, because now we have adopted what I like to call affective principle of worship.

And the affective principle of worship goes like this. If somebody likes it and it makes them feel close to God, it's good. I got an angel.

I got an angel. I got an angel. Now who are you going to listen to? Your angel or your enemy?

That's all that's required. If people are blessed by it, if it's meaningful to them, and if it facilitates an encounter, if it facilitates an experience with God, then it.

Is acceptable. And anyone who says otherwise is judgmental and legalistic and mean. And we know.

The 11th commandment is, thou shalt be nice, and we don't believe the other 10. Amen, somebody.

The affective principle. Disturbing things are happening in churches all around the world in the name of Jesus Christ that do not at all glorify God. Many churches today look more like circuses than places of worship.

Heidi Baker, Bethel Church, and Chaotic Church Services

Let's take a look at eight of the worst offenders, and then we'll conclude with some final thoughts. So make sure you stick around until the end to hear them. Starting with number eight, we have Heidi Baker in Bethel Church.

Watch how Baker.

Conducts a church service. So you're going to take it, and you're going to put it on somebody else's head and watch, and then say, more Lord. More Lord. Everybody place that anointing, that crown, that gift upon someone else's head.

Keep praying. Every single one of you, impartation, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy. Increase your glory. More Lord. Try it again. Try it again. Try it again. Try it again.

More Lord. Fire. There's fire. Place it on their head. Find somebody. I think he's got it. Shake up, Abba. Fire. Place it on another one's head. Fire. Legacy, legacy.

I would like to know where exactly in scripture Baker sees precedent for this kind of chaotic behavior in church. For people shaking uncontrollably. For repeating over and over.

Again words like legacy. Legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy. Or for saying something like this.

Fire. Clearly the priority here is emotion and experience, rather than simple faithfulness to proclaiming scripture and obeying scripture's teachings. But Heidi Baker's chaotic church service here is nothing compared to number seven, Benny Hinn, one of the most famous pastors in the entire country.

Benny Hinn and Manipulative Healing Services

Watch the kinds of unbelievable things Hinn does at his supposed healing services. Like with Baker, where exactly in scripture does Hinn get the idea that God wants him to knock people down with his coat?

It seems obvious that Hinn is creating a show and manipulating emotions, not teaching and obeying scripture. If you're appalled by what Benny Hinn is doing in the name of Jesus Christ, just wait until you see number six, a church that actually invited a drag queen to its service.

Or what about this church, where a drag queen actually preached.

A sermon. Loving creator, holy one, and diva of the world, may your word shine upon us like glitter under the stage lights. May it pop like a death drop in a crowded dingy basement. Obviously these.

Are not churches and the people supporting these drag queens are not Christians. Nevertheless, it's shocking to think that some professing Christians actually think this kind of behavior is acceptable in church.

But if you think drag queens in churches are bad, wait until you see this sermon from number five, Creflo Dollar, someone who many actually believe is a legitimate.

Christian pastor. I ain't coming out of debt. I'm out of debt right next month.

Creflo Dollar, Money, and the Mockery of Christianity

This is absolutely disgusting. A pastor who not only focuses on people's love for money, but uses their hope for money to get them emotionally excited to give to his ministry for his personal gain. Do we see in scripture Christians cheering or running around the room for money?

Of course not. Creflo Dollar is making a mockery of both church and Christianity. But Creflo Dollar's popularity doesn't compare to number four, Stephen Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church, one of the largest megachurches in the United States.

Stephen Furtick, Hype, and Unbiblical Teaching

Furtick regularly hypes people up.

With nonsense unrelated to, or even antithetical to, what scripture actually teaches. The emphasis.

Here isn't on teaching scripture, but rather on hyping people up with emotion. Furtick even has instruments playing during this segment to heighten the emotion people experience as he's saying this nonsense.

But what's even worse is when Furtick hypes people up with teachings that.

Are flat out unbiblical. He's saying to every lawbreaker, God broke the law. Jesus broke the.

Law. Are you kidding me? It's not only extremely irresponsible for a supposedly Christian pastor to say that God broke the law, but it's even worse when he says this while trying to hype up the audience with emotion, while at the same time playing instruments to manipulate emotions.

But Stephen Furtick's use of hype during his sermons still pales in comparison to number three, Kenneth Copeland, who has done some truly unbelievable things in church in the name of Jesus Christ. Watch what Copeland tells the audience to do here.

Kenneth Copeland and False Healing Practices

Obviously, this is not at all how the Bible teaches us to pray for healing, but it gets even worse. Here's Copeland actually talking to and pretending to destroy COVID -19. COVID -19. COVID -19. I blow on you.

On you. You.

Are destroyed forever. You are destroyed forever. And you will never be back. Copeland makes a.

Complete mockery of church and the Christian faith, but what's even more troubling is number two, T .D. Jakes, who is far more popular than Copeland today. Jakes is good friends with Stephen Furtick, and they both love to hype up the audience with emotion during church.

T. D. Jakes and Emotion-Driven Worship

These next clips of Jakes screaming during church is absolutely shocking. Like with Furtick, a large part of Jakes' ministry is hyping people up and manipulating their emotions. Again, watch the emphasis on emotion and losing control in this next clip.

This kind of uncontrolled emotion is not at all the kind of worship that should characterize a Christian church because it's extremely easy to hype people up with emotion without having the emotion be centered around correct biblical doctrine.

But there's one pastor who has made an even bigger mockery of church than T .D. Jakes, and that's number one, Mike Todd, pastor of Transformation Church. Watch how Todd invites people to come to Transformation Church.

Mike Todd, Church Stunts, and the Need for Serious Preaching

I'm the candy man, and I just want to give a special.

Shout out to my homeboy, Mike Todd, who invited me to church. And they told me you can belong before you behave, and that's good for me because you know I have some behaving to do. I just want to invite you to Transformation Church so we can get cleaned together.

Keep in mind, this is someone.

Whom the people attending the church are supposed to respect to deliver the Word of God, which is filled with serious teachings. But this kind of unserious behavior is characteristic of Mike Todd and his preaching.

Todd issued an apology for the shocking spit incident we saw in the introduction.

To this video. Hey, what's going on, everybody? I hope you're having an amazing Monday. I just want to acknowledge what happened yesterday when the spit hit the fan. I watched it back, and it was disgusting.

Like, that was gross. I want to validate everybody's feelings that that was a distraction to what I was really trying to do. I was really trying to make the Word come alive and for people to see the story, but yesterday it got too live, and I own that.

It's certainly good that.

Todd is apologizing for this incident, but the very fact that he thought this kind of behavior is appropriate during a church sermon is what is very troubling. It seems like Furtick Todd wants so badly to make his sermons and his church interesting that he ends up performing stunts rather than simply teaching what Scripture teaches.

The spitting incident was not an exception to the kinds of things Todd does in the name of church, but rather the norm. DJ, can you go ahead and set the pace for us, and y 'all follow me? Everybody, let's go!

For pastors like Todd, the Word of God and the Gospel by itself is irrelevant and unrelatable to people, so they need to dress it up with excitement, emotion, and what's popular in the culture. And what's extremely troubling about all this is that this leads people to believe they are Christians because they like the excitement, emotion, and cultural things, but the problem is that they do not actually know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Worship, Presuppositions, and Reformed Epistemology

Listen to what Vodie Bauckham says about what true worship looks like. This was not a matter.

Of preference. This was a matter of fundamental presuppositions. This was a matter of fundamental understanding about who God is and how we meet Him in worship. On the one hand, there is the idea that says we need an emotional experience.

We need an emotional catharsis. We need to focus in on what it is that will create the environment that will allow us to feel the way we want to feel, or we ought to feel, or would like to feel, and everything needs to be designed around that.

And the other says, here's who God is, regardless of the circumstances, and here's what God says about Himself, about worship, and about death, and it will be enough. It will be enough. And I'm just going to go ahead.

I'm just going to go on and confess. I was raised, trained, mentored, came to faith. You know, first time I heard the Gospel, I was in college. But from then on, everything that I was taught, all of my training was centered around this man-centered approach to worship, the affective principle of worship.

And I have been in meetings where the discussions centered around the cathartic experience. And an amazing thing happens when you embrace a reformed epistemology, not just a reformed soteriology, but a reformed epistemology, and amazing things happen.

When you sit down and think about what we are going to put before people, and when that becomes centered around the great truths that we've been commanded to communicate, it changes.

Things. Thank you so much for watching into the end. If you'd like this video, hitting the subscribe button helps this channel reach more people with the truth. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement.