Michael Todd: Pastor or Performer?

Fight For Truth

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I have not preached in a long time and I really do believe that I'm about to act a fool up here.

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So I want to go ahead and pre -warn everybody that I'm not fully responsible for what's about to happen.

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That was a passage from New York Times best -selling author Pastor Mike Todd's new book, Damaged But Not Destroyed, and his latest book designed to help you turn trauma into triumph.

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Pastor Mike Todd joins us this morning with more. Please welcome Pastor Michael Todd.

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Michael Todd of Transformation Church is one of the most popular pastors in the world right now.

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His sermons get millions of views and thousands of comments. Millions of young Christians around the world have been influenced by Mike Todd and an entire generation of young pastors are starting to use his trademark ministry formula.

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Mike has developed his following by teaching people about the He uses his unique combination of charisma and energy to come up with new creative ways to understand the scriptures.

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In the past few years, his church has become incredibly popular. This has even led to TV contracts, book deals, and most importantly, an army of loyal fans.

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But what if I told you that his teaching was not only unbiblical, but actually dangerous? You might be surprised when you hear the truth about Pastor Michael Todd and Transformation Church.

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Mike is known for using strange, even bizarre antics to get his point across during sermons, including spitting on people.

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Now, if you're just joining us, we're talking about Michael Todd. Of course, he's a pastor. He's a bestselling author. And over the weekend, he was trending.

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Everybody was talking about him because of this right here. What I'm telling you is just as he's physically standing here, knowing what's coming,

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God saying, can you physically and spiritually and emotionally be able to stand when getting the vision or receiving it might get nasty?

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And do you hear and see the responses of the people? It should be recognized that Michael later apologized for this incident.

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Yet this is not the only example. He has also sprayed syrup and whipped cream on a Bible and a tray full of communion elements.

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I lift my hands to give you the glory. I lift my hands to give praise.

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And we will praise you. It's just a temple.

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Syrup all over the communion. Don't care so much. Over the

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Bible too. Stop acting like you care about this.

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He can also be seen wearing virtual reality goggles while preaching. Because I went into that store and I put on these, uh, these goggles and, uh, the technology that is in these things.

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I know y 'all looking at me crazy right now, but I'm looking at you crazy. Cause I can see everything, but now

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I can see everything with other things in front of it. Like black

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Panther is playing right here. In another sermon, Mike is found jumping on a trampoline.

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This is a complete different experience. I will believe what the word has said and what he said over my life.

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And some of y 'all are scared because you've never jumped that high before. Michael has even been recorded crowd surfing during a worship service.

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But what exactly leads Mike Todd to do all this? Why would any pastor believe that this is the way to get his word out to the masses?

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The answer may surprise you. In the past, preaching was a way for a pastor to read scripture to his congregation and explain it to them, showing them how it applied to their lives.

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But the Bible was not seen as a casual self -help book. On the contrary, it was seen as the actual words of the

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God of the universe. As a result, pastors and church goers treated the church gathering and the word with deep respect.

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They certainly wouldn't have poured syrup on the Bible or jumped around the stage while preaching. But with the rise of a new and modern generation, many leaders feared that the old church practices would seem irrelevant and unengaging for young people.

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This led to the birth of the Seeker Sensitive Church, a new movement that emphasized modern entertainment, popular trends, and youth driven culture in the ministry.

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And from this movement, we got Transformation Church and Mike Todd, who took this new ministry model to the absolute extreme.

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For example, look at this video where Mike passionately preaches while playing in a kiddie pool.

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He has also preached in a bed while cuddling with a mannequin.

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Mike has even preached while a barber cut his hair live on stage. Michael Todd is perhaps the most entertaining pastor in the world right now.

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His sermons are full of absurd illustrations and shocking images. And all of this is being done for attention, to get more people interested in his teaching.

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Teaching that he believes is having an overwhelmingly positive effect on the world, even changing lives.

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But is any of this actually biblical? To answer that question, we need to ask an even larger one. What is the point of preaching a sermon in the first place?

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Look at what the Bible says on this topic. 2 Timothy 4 -2 tells pastors to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

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Colossians 3 -16 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

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1 Timothy 4 -13 says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

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Titus 2 -7 speaks to mature men in the church, saying, in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech.

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Notice that none of these passages talk about using gimmicks or entertainment as a preaching strategy.

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In fact, there doesn't seem to be any command to do these things in the entire New Testament. This would have been seen as out of bounds and undignified behavior that doesn't befit a pastor in the church.

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Yet somehow, despite these obvious problems, Michael Todd believes it's a good idea to teach this way.

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But he doesn't just preach while doing things that are silly or absurd. Sometimes he does things that are blatantly inappropriate.

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In 2022, Mike preached a two -hour long sermon while wearing a t -shirt featuring his wife in a bathing suit and a caption that said, hot girl summer.

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Knowing that this would cause controversy, here's what he said in that sermon in his own defense. Today, there'll be comments about the sermon.

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People will comment good things. People will comment bad things. They'll be mad because I had a picture of my wife on my shirt in a bathing suit.

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How a pastor going to get up there tempting everybody? But if you go into Forever 21 right now, your daughter has on a shirt with somebody they don't know within a bathing suit right now.

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And you think, I love her and she wears bathing suits. First ladies wear bathing suits? Oh my God. I'm so done with church people.

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Michael genuinely believes that it's appropriate to put your wife on display during a sermon.

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And the justification for this is that people in the secular world do things that are more immodest than what he did.

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But this sermon is child's play compared to what he did in Easter of 2023. Transformation Church put on a play called

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Ransom that had some very questionable content. In their official

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Easter Sunday gathering, Transformation Church created a performance that displayed three women in skin -tight leather pants dancing inappropriately while talking about the shape of their bodies and the effect that this can have on men.

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Contrast this with what we find in Scripture about female behavior in the church. 1

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Timothy 2 .9 says women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self -control.

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And in Proverbs 11 .22, we are told that like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.

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Yet Mike Todd's church, on the other hand, publicly encourages the women in their congregation to have a lack of modesty and a lack of discretion.

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Unfortunately, this even includes the lead pastor and his own wife. But the problem with Transformation Church is not just the style of their teaching, but the actual content of it.

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In many cases, they teach things that are directly against the Word of God. I'm about to drop some knowledge on you that everybody has to be able to receive.

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And this may be a shocking statement for some people, but people don't go to hell for sin. Jesus already paid for that.

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They go to hell for unbelief. Pastor Mike believes that people do not go to hell for sin.

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The Bible paints a very different picture. In fact, it tells us the exact opposite story.

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Romans 6 .23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our

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Lord. 2 Peter 2 .4 says that God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell.

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In Matthew 5 .22, Jesus says that those who harbor sinful anger towards their brother will be liable to the hell of fire.

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Mike Todd tells us that we can easily separate the concept of personal sin from the concept of God's judgment in hell, but the

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Bible does not give us this option. But unfortunately, this is not the only false teaching he has to offer on the topic especially particular sins that the modern culture supports.

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I feel you. And I wish that there was an option of other in the kingdom.

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Pastors don't say this because they want to be absolute. Well, why did that? I don't freaking know. I know honestly,

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I wish God would have made it so much simpler and it was like A, B, C, or D.

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Like frick, I'm serious. As a pastor's like, so what do you think about gay men?

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I don't know. In response to the modern transgender movement, Pastor Todd claims that he cannot be dogmatic about why

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God chose to make people male and female. In fact, had God consulted him, he says that he may have offered a different pattern for creation.

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He may have recommended that God do something else. On the surface, this sermon sounds honest and humble, but the word of God provides a very different interpretation.

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Genesis 127 says that God created man in his own image, male and female, he created them.

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In Genesis 131, we are also told that God saw everything he had made and behold, it was very good.

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When a secular person asks why God made us male and female, Christians should not say that they do not know the answer.

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That would be untrue. God has told his people that he created them male and female because this best represented his image and brought him unique glory and joy.

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In other words, it was good to him. Being unclear about this does not make you humble and honest, it makes you look weak and confused.

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It is abundantly clear that Michael's preaching about sin is very misleading. Do you want to cheat on your wife?

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Do you want to cheat on your husband? Feel like leaving them nappy -headed kids to make them move into Hawaii.

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Feel it. Look up flights. $600, I'll be out of here tomorrow.

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I will be out of here. Everybody say feel it.

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God wouldn't have given you feelings if he didn't expect you to feel it.

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But in the kingdom, we have to put our feelings through a filter. According to Pastor Mike Todd, it is acceptable to feel like cheating on your spouse.

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In fact, he tells the entire congregation that these kinds of feelings are given to them by God himself so that they can process them, and therefore,

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God wants them to feel that way. He strongly implies that all feelings, no matter how sinful they are, are okay, and it is only sinful when these feelings turn into concrete action.

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But this statement is not in agreement with the pattern of Scripture. In Matthew 5 .28, Jesus says,

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I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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Colossians 3 .5 says, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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According to the Bible, there are internal passions and desires that are sinful, even if a person does not act on them.

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As a result, we are called in Romans 12 .2 to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.

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And Proverbs 4 .23 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

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Internal passions are not all sinful, but some of them certainly are. Yet instead of warning his congregation about evil desires,

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Michael Todd actively encourages his church to excuse them, provided that they don't act on them.

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But Todd's teaching is so deeply flawed, it affects even more than his ideas about sin.

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It actually affects the way he thinks about Jesus Christ himself. And unfortunately,

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Jesus is not the only person of the Trinity who Mike Todd has spoken about recklessly. Most of us have loaded up the operating system of God.

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We say, you know what? I recognize it. But it is my goal at Transformation Church, we represent

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God to the lost and found for one reason, that's transformation in Christ. What we want you to do is not just recognize that there is a big man upstairs.

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We want you to recognize there's a God, but we want you to receive God 2 .0, which is

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Jesus. So at the end of every service, in just a moment, I'm going to give you an opportunity to receive

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Jesus. And once you receive Jesus, the sad truth is this is where most people stop.

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They just worry about getting to heaven. And God said, but I came that you may have life and life to the full.

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And through this series, my prayer is that you would release God 3 .0.

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You would release the Holy Spirit. On the surface, this sermon has appeared to many as a simple illustration of the

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Trinity, making a complex Christian doctrine easy for everyone to understand. The problem is that this illustration is deeply disturbing if you take it to its logical conclusion.

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Mike refers to the Father as God 1 .0, the Son as God 2 .0, and the

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Holy Spirit as God 3 .0. In fact, he specifically says that he's making a direct comparison to software and operating systems.

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The problem is that 2 .0 software is the new and improved version of the 1 .0 software.

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In other words, the 2 .0 fixes the bugs and issues from the previous software, and it adds new and improved features that the 1 .0

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was simply not powerful enough to offer. But this is a very careless thing to say about God.

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It implies that God the Father had some deficiency or internal problem that the

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Son needed to fix. Yet in Matthew 5 .48, Jesus says that the Father is perfect and without any flaw.

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The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God, yet they are distinct from one another.

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One essence, three persons. This is the historic doctrine of the Trinity that Christians have held to for thousands of years.

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Take John 16 for example. In verse 7, Jesus says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

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It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.

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Of course, the Helper he is referring to is God the Holy Spirit. In verse 8, Jesus explains,

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When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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But notice that Jesus does not say that the Holy Spirit is of a higher or better quality when compared to Himself.

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There is no Jesus 2 .0 here. Rather, He simply says that the Spirit's ministry will be an advantage for believers and that He will help them greatly.

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The Bible simply does not speak of the Trinity the way that Mike Todd does. At best,

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His teaching on the topic is misguided. At worst, it is heresy and blasphemy against God.

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And this is not the only time he has confused his church about the Trinity. If we go down to its basic form, this is

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H2O. This is H2O2. It's dry ice. And it's a different expression.

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So if that was God the Father, God the Son, this is

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God the Holy Spirit. Still H2O, but it takes on a completely different form.

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And this is what God is about to do in your life. You're about to see evidence of the power of the

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Holy Spirit. Still God. Still God. Still God. Still God.

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Just like the last example, many of the young people in Mike Todd's audience will believe that this is an innocent sermon illustration meant to help young Christians understand their faith.

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But lurking beneath the surface of this teaching is a dangerous ancient heresy, the heresy of modalism.

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In the early church, there arose leaders who taught this idea. Ironically, none of their writings survive today, because the church universally recognized them as dangerous false teachers.

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Yet they did teach, as Mike Todd does here, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one person who exists in three modes, or in three different forms.

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In other words, God is like an actor. Sometimes He plays the role of the Father, other times of the

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Son, and still other times of the Holy Spirit. But the problem with this concept is that the

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Bible clearly tells us that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all eternal, and that they exist at the same time.

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For example, in Matthew chapter 3, Jesus is baptized. During this event, the

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Father speaks from heaven and says, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

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And also during this event, Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest upon Him.

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Mike Todd wants you to believe that these three persons do not exist at the same time as one another, and eternally so.

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But the Bible clearly shows us the exact opposite. If you follow the teaching of Pastor Todd, it is very likely that he will convince you to believe a dangerous heresy.

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Another topic about which Michael has confused Christians is money and financial success.

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In some videos, he can be seen condemning the prosperity gospel. And there's ways that you can move from here to here and still be out of the will of God.

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Righteousness, more money, more pleasure is the confession of the prosperity gospel.

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And let me tell you what the prosperity gospel is fueled by. See, the poverty gospel is fueled by fear, but the prosperity gospel is fueled by futility.

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In short, the prosperity gospel is the message that if you believe in Jesus, you can thereby gain financial wealth and riches in this life.

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It is good and right that Michael condemns this idea, since it is extremely unbiblical. Yet this video does not tell the whole story.

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For many years, the statement of faith on the official Transformation Church website seemed to preach a form of the very prosperity gospel that Michael claims to condemn.

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The website said this, The website then listed the areas of life it was referring to, one of which was financial.

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In other words, the official doctrinal statement of faith given by Transformation Church on their own website said that God's plan of salvation includes financial success for everyone who believes it.

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It is hard to see this as anything other than a dangerous prosperity gospel. 1

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Timothy 6 says godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world.

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But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. If success, riches, and wealth are promised to every true believer, it is hard to comprehend why

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God's Word would contain many warnings about wealth and many encouragements to be content with God providing for your needs.

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Of course, it is not helpful to command every Christian to actively seek poverty, but it is equally unhelpful to promise material wealth along with the salvation of Christ.

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This is the prosperity gospel, and Transformation Church has undoubtedly promoted it.

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But perhaps the most dangerous aspect of Michael's ministry is that it might be a gateway to something far worse.

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We don't make it rain on booty cheeks. We don't make it rain on strippers.

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We only reverence one stripper, and that's the one that took off glory to put on humanity and then get butt naked on a cross to die for both you and me.

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The only stripper I'm in love with is Jesus, and he's the one that puts that bread in my pocket.

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That bread in my pocket. The man in that video is a pastor named

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Tim Ross. The stage he was speaking on is at Transformation Church, and according to him, one of his closest friends in the world is also one of his co -workers.

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That co -worker is Michael Todd. This is literally my brother from another mother.

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The connection that God gave me with him is akin to Jonathan and David, just souls that have been knit, not tied, but knit together.

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And he is one of the most influential leaders in our faith, in the

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Christian movement. Tim Ross and Michael Todd are not just co -pastors at Transformation Church.

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They are best friends. Michael is responsible for platforming Tim for his whole congregation.

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And yet this is the very same man who stood on stage and told the entire church that the only stripper he loves is

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Jesus Christ. This is utterly blasphemous. It's irreverent and misinformed.

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In his attempt to make Jesus culturally relevant, he has made a mockery of Him. Isaiah 9 -6 says,

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For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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There are many illustrious and glorious names that we could use for Jesus Christ, but stripper is simply not one of them.

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In fact, nearly every case in the Bible where people are compared to lustful or wayward women, the people being compared are those who worship idols or who blaspheme

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God. Ironically, the very same thing that Tim is doing in that video. Hosea 4 -15 gives an example of this.

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Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. This comparison is not used in Scripture to paint someone in a positive light.

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And using this comparison with regard to the Lord is completely unacceptable. But Tim Ross is not the only wayward teacher that has been endorsed by Michael Todd.

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Michael has publicly endorsed Lakewood Church, which belongs to perhaps the most notorious false teacher of the past few decades,

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Joel Osteen. Joel's false teaching is so vast it would require another documentary just to cover a few examples.

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And yet this is just the tip of the iceberg. You got a number one book.

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Man, God is so good. We gotta, um, we gotta celebrate. Okay, let's do it. How we gonna do this?

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Give the people something they ain't never seen. What you talking about? We gotta tag -team preach relationship goals.

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Hold on, me and you tag -team preaching about relationship goals? They not ready for this,

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Pastor Steven, because if this actually happens, people are going to start winning in relationships.

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What you just saw was a FaceTime video between Michael Todd and Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church.

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His preaching is every bit as deluded and unbiblical as Mike Todd's. Furtick focuses on the self -esteem of man rather than the glory of God.

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He has also, like his friend Michael, embraced modalism for a number of years. This is the kind of man that Todd respects and endorses, and yet he's not even the worst example.

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Now, I don't know what you thought this was, but this is a celebration of life. And we're going to thank

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God. Okay, let me go to the other side. We are about to celebrate the life of Carlton Demetrius.

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Before you're seated, I want to let you know what's going on. The man of God that we are celebrating today held a high responsibility in this earth.

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He was a bishop. And with that, we've had beautiful ceremonies yesterday, with people from all over the world in the religious community.

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What's happening right now is the bishop is having the Paul. The celebration of life event that you just watched was nearly four hours long, and it took place in the sanctuary of Transformation Church.

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The man being celebrated was one Bishop Carlton D. Pearson, a man who the leaders of Transformation Church consider to be a great example in the faith and a wonderful teacher of God's word.

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But if you uncover his true legacy and his true beliefs, you might just be shocked. Bishop Carlton Pearson was a

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Unitarian Universalist. In fact, he was arguably the most popular and most notable leader within this movement in the greater

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Tulsa area, which also happens to be home to Transformation Church. As a Unitarian, Pearson held that God is not three persons, but rather one single person who presents himself in three different ways.

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It is very similar, in fact, identical to the modalist heresy that Michael Todd described earlier.

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As a Universalist, Pearson declares that hell is not a real place, and that everyone in the world will eventually be saved, even if they don't believe in Jesus.

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And how exactly did he get these unorthodox ideas? Well, he got them by denying that the

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Bible is the word of God at all. I came up with the conclusion that we probably got it wrong.

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And we misinterpreted that instead of the Bible being the inspired word of God, it's probably just the inspired word of man about God.

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This bishop was removed from his denomination and denounced as a heretic, even amongst the

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Pentecostals who ordained him for ministry in the first place. Yet all of this was not enough to persuade

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Mike Todd, who to this day has never denounced Bishop Carlton Pearson. And shockingly,

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Pearson is not the only public heretical teacher who Mike openly celebrates. Look at this picture of Michael Todd preaching.

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Specifically, look at his t -shirt. You may see this as a harmless photo of some civil rights leader who is worthy of our respect and veneration.

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The true story is much more disturbing than that. That picture shows a late minister named

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Miles Monroe, a man who taught that, quote, This statement is complete blasphemy, and it diminishes the ultimate power and authority of God.

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Job 42 verse 2 says, I know that you, God, can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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This is just one of hundreds of passages that point to God's complete power and authority over the earth.

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God certainly does use human beings to accomplish his will, but he does not require their permission to act in his own creation.

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Yet shockingly, this is not the only flawed teaching that Miles Monroe had to offer. He also preached that Jesus never actually died on the cross 2 ,000 years ago.

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Some of you think that Jesus died 2 ,000 years ago. Not true.

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If that was true, then that means Jesus was not finished before he started.

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The Bible does not say Jesus died for you 2 ,000 years ago. The Bible says,

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Behold the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.

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Come on, give him a scream tonight. To be clear, it does not seem that Miles denied the death of Christ entirely.

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At best, his teaching on the matter was confusing. At worst, it was heresy. In some sermons, he does seem to imply that Jesus actually died.

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Yet in this sermon, he confidently declares outright that Jesus did not die 2 ,000 years ago on the cross because the

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Bible says that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the earth. Revelation 13 .8

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But there are several problems with this teaching. First, Revelation 13 .8 has multiple competing translations, and there is no consensus on what it actually says.

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Yet there is no Bible translation whatsoever that supports Miles Monroe's interpretation here.

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He uses this passage to declare confidently that Jesus did not die on the cross 2 ,000 years ago, but this directly contradicts the

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Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 15 .3, Paul says, For I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

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Scriptures. Not only is it true that Jesus actually died, but according to the

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Word, this is a matter of the utmost importance. A Christian can certainly believe that the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.

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For example, this may simply be taken to mean that God's glorious plan of salvation was so sure and so rock -solid that it was laid out even before creation began.

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But this text simply cannot be used to say that Jesus did not actually die on the cross.

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That kind of teaching is extremely dangerous, yet it's exactly what Miles Monroe said.

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And he did not only have strange views on the death of Christ, he also had bizarre ideas about the gospel message itself.

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Do you know why the people on your job really ain't Christians right now? Because you are preaching to them

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Jesus Christ. Boy, it's tough to teach this.

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I feel like a man in the desert by myself. See, that's not what you're supposed to preach.

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You preach the kingdom of God to the folks on the job. Tell them that you can get your citizenship back.

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There is a kingdom that belonged to you before you was even born. You were born to be a part of a government rulership that have dominated the earth.

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Your condition is not supposed to control you. You're supposed to control them. Your circumstances are supposed to run your life.

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You're supposed to run your circumstances. You're supposed to be dominating your finances. And your emotions and your problems.

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You're supposed to be on top of this thing. Folks want to hear that. People ain't worrying about no blood or no cross.

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They're worrying about how they're gonna make it through the day. In that sermon,

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Miles says that Christians have been preaching the gospel all wrong. Instead of talking about the gospel with reference to Jesus' blood, death, sacrifice, or even his resurrection, people should instead be preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

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Which, in his view, seems to mean that you should talk to people about their earthly goals, especially their finances.

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To be clear, the gospel of the kingdom is certainly a biblical concept, but Miles Monroe does not describe it here in an accurate way.

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In Matthew 24, 14, Jesus says, And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

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Jesus himself uses the phrase, the gospel of the kingdom. Yet, just like the previous example,

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Miles takes a broad biblical concept and naively uses it to diminish a more specific biblical concept.

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In this case, the broader idea of the overarching kingdom of God is used to cheapen and diminish the specific event of Jesus dying for our sins on the cross.

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Don't talk about blood or the cross, he says. Just talk about the kingdom. The problem is that the kingdom of God and the sacrifice of Christ are not at odds with one another.

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To say that people should stop talking about his blood or his cross and should instead focus on his kingdom is absurd, because the cross is the very method that Jesus used to ultimately establish his kingdom and destroy the powers of darkness.

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The two are very much intertwined. As 1 Corinthians 1, 18 says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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The cross, then, is not a gory little detail that Christians should gloss over or diminish.

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It is the greatest example of God's love ever given. When Miles Monroe preaches like this, he makes the

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Bible the enemy of the Bible. He pits one true and biblical idea against another equally true and biblical idea.

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And in the end, this is how he confuses people about the death of Jesus and the gospel of Christ, two of the most important doctrines of the

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Christian faith. This is very important to understand because it speaks to the discernment of Mike Todd, who has outwardly endorsed both of these men.

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He may not even be aware of what people like Miles Monroe or Carlton Pearson actually believed, yet regardless, he carelessly endorses these people to his massive audience of impressionable young Christians.

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And seeing this behavior, many people have said that Michael does not know how to be a biblical pastor.

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Strangely enough, in some sense, Mike would agree. In 2015, I became the pastor and I didn't know what a pastor did.

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And so I was meeting with a group of people and they was like, what should we do for Easter? I was like, I've never preached the Easter message. So I'm not going to start this year.

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If Todd did not know what a pastor did when he became a pastor, then what exactly did he teach people?

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Well, he taught them whatever he could remember from kids' Christian TV shows. And I had never studied.

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I had never preached a message. I'd never been in front of anybody. We just, I would go in there and I would be myself.

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I would use Bible stories that I learned from like McGee and me. And like,

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I am not, I'm straight expectations, bro. Like the odyssey, like I was just using things that raised us.

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Yeah. I was using things that were stuck in my heart. To put it bluntly, Michael himself publicly admits that he was completely unqualified for the position he now holds.

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The Bible, on the other hand, gives us a very different description of who a pastor should be. 1

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Timothy 3, 2 says, Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

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From this text arises an important question. How can you be an overseer, teacher, or pastor if you don't even know what the word means?

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And how can you teach your congregation when your biblical studies were all done through children's

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TV shows? And we have to ask the question, what exactly does it say about Transformation Church that they would appoint someone like this to be their pastor?

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Frankly, it says that they care more about charismatic personality than they care about following the word of God.

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Yet Michael Todd is not the only unqualified pastor at Transformation Church. A brief look at the church's website shows that they have at least four women in their congregation who are classified as pastors of various kinds.

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This includes Michael Todd's own wife. And these women are not just pastors in name only. They actually preach

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Sunday sermons. Here is a video of so -called Pastor Bree Davis. Today I felt

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God say that today was going to be an unusual service. Something different was going to happen in here and he gave me some instructions on that.

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And here is another video of Amber Bell doing the same thing. I believe what

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God shared from me was not only for me, but it was for every single one of us in this room. It was for every one of us who's tuning in right now from all over the world.

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And it's for anyone who has ears to hear. For many people, it appears as though Transformation Church is simply providing an equal opportunity for both men and women to preach the word of God.

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And who could possibly have an issue with basic equality? Well, it's not quite that simple.

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In 1 Timothy 2 .12, Paul says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

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And this argument is not rooted in his particular cultural situation. Rather, it is rooted in creation and is a command given to the entire church.

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Paul goes on to say, For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

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More than this, every clear reference to elders or pastors in Scripture pertains only to men.

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Titus 1 .6 says that pastors must be the husband of one wife. And 1 Timothy 3 similarly says that overseers and leaders in the church must be above reproach the husband of one wife.

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So to promote women to the office of pastor, regardless of how pure their intentions might be, goes against everything we are told about this topic in God's word.

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Unfortunately, it is clear that Transformation Church cares more about catering to modern feminist sensibilities than following the

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Bible. Yet somehow, despite the evidence that you have been shown, there are still many people who will defend

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Michael Todd's actions to the bitter end. And there is a particular argument they like to use.

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How can Transformation Church be bad if the effect of their ministry is so good? In the year 2021, year to date, there have been 46 ,348 salvations!

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Yes, God! That's a lot.

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That is it. 46 ,000? That is, yeah, that is beyond arenas.

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Like the biggest arenas are 20 ,000 people. Like arenas filled more than double over of people in one year.

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One year. One year. And the thing that we... This video claims that over 46 ,000 people were saved by Jesus Christ as a direct result of Transformation Church and Michael Todd.

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This number does sound incredibly impressive. In fact, the idea that this sheer amount of people are being saved in a particular ministry is often seen as definitive proof that this ministry is approved by God.

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But there's a big question that needs to be asked here. How exactly do they know that this is true?

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For starters, Transformation Church only has about 5 ,000 in -person members. So obviously, it is not the case that this church is personally and intimately discipling an additional 46 ,000 people live and in -person.

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So again, it's fair to ask the question, how do Mike Todd and his church possibly know that 46 ,000 people got saved by their ministry?

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Well, they have posted some of their methods online, and it provides an interesting picture. Thank you for what you did in this place today,

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God, and I know you're not done. If you gave your life to Christ today,

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I want you to text SAVE to 828282. Generally speaking, this is the kind of method that Transformation Church is using to figure out how many people are getting saved by their ministry.

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The formula looks something like this. Michael preaches a fiery and passionate sermon filled with dynamic and engaging illustrations.

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Then they dim the lights and play soft, emotional music that tugs at your heartstrings.

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From there, they ask you to simply text a phone number or leave a comment on their YouTube page saying that you gave your life to Christ.

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But it's hard to imagine why someone would not do this, given that the entire service has been meticulously designed to make them do it.

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We can compare this to another very popular method that churches use to figure out how many people are getting saved, the altar call.

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Do you know him? Are you sure of it? I'm going to ask you to come and stand in front of this platform and say by coming,

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I want to come to Christ with all my heart. I want to surrender to him. I want to make sure.

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You want to receive him into your heart or you want to rededicate your life to him? You get up and come and stand here.

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And after you've all come and stood here, I'm going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you, then give you some literature to help you in your

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Christian life. Of course, most people who have been to church at one point or another have experienced the altar call.

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In this method, the preacher offers a powerful sermon, and then he publicly calls the people in the audience to come forward and demonstrate that they are accepting

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Jesus into their heart or something of that nature. A huge percentage of young Christians have experienced this kind of event and have personally walked the aisle, as they say.

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But is this a reliable way to know which people are actually getting saved? Well, let's look at the concrete evidence.

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The greatest example of this kind of altar call style of evangelism is the late Billy Graham and his crusades.

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Hundreds of thousands of people came forward at these events to profess faith in Jesus Christ.

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It's very similar to what Mike Todd did in that video, except these people had to actually physically walk forward.

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And of course, walking the aisle itself is not a difficult thing to do at all. But let's face it, anonymously texting a random phone number is far easier.

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And interestingly, we actually have statistics of what happened to the people who came forward during these crusade events.

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Church growth researcher Wynne Arnn conducted a statistical follow -up on a Billy Graham crusade in 1976.

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Over 434 ,000 people attended this event, live and in person.

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Of these, 18 ,000 people came forward to demonstrate faith in Christ. That's a little over 4 % of the entire audience.

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And of that 4 % group, over half of them were already professing Christians who saw their actions as a rededicating their life to Christ, not as a unique moment of their first time salvation.

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And of the people who claimed to actually be saved at this event, only 1 ,285 of them became active church members within a year.

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But what does all of this mean practically? Well, it means that of all of the new Christians who walked the aisle at this particular

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Billy Graham crusade, less than 10 % of them were active church members just a year later.

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Now, just to be clear, the Holy Spirit is not bound by statistics, nor is he bound by the timing of man.

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It is entirely possible that many of these people were actually saved, but started regularly attending church a few years later.

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It is also possible that some of the people who did not come forward during the crusade were saved by Christ privately after the event was over.

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All of these are fair points that certainly should be taken into account. But here's the core issue. Despite consistent critiques,

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Michael Todd declares that his ministry is powerful, effective, and biblical. And oftentimes, the evidence that he gives is something like this.

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In this case, the claim is that 46 ,000 people were saved through his ministry in just one year.

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The inconvenient fact is that these numbers are not a reliable way of figuring out who is actually getting saved and who is not.

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In fact, these numbers are so unreliable that they can't even predict the most basic Christian living.

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For example, attending church actively. And it's worth noting that Billy Graham was much more influential than Mike Todd is.

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After all, Graham was a household name, and the most popular modern evangelist or preacher by a huge margin.

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Yet of all of the new converts who came forward at his events, only a small fraction attended church actively just one year after the fact.

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And this should give us pause when we hear big numbers like what Mike Todd offered. To be clear,

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I'm not saying that everyone who has ever resonated with Mike Todd's preaching is an unsaved heretic.

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Of course not. That wouldn't be fair. I'm sure many of them are true Christians. But that doesn't change the facts.

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You can't affirm someone's teaching simply because they offer you big numbers, especially when those numbers are often based on text messages from random people.

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And by the way, it's worth noting, even if hundreds of thousands of people really were in fact coming to faith in Transformation Church, that wouldn't make their ministry biblical.

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And it certainly wouldn't remove any of the serious problems in their movement. Obviously, nitpicking at small differences is not a

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Christian virtue. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus himself rebukes the Pharisees for neglecting the weightier or more significant matters of the law.

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But these errors are not small. Denying the Trinity is a serious heresy. Having women dance immodestly in your church gathering is appalling behavior.

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And Transformation Church has blatantly and publicly ignored the most basic pastoral requirements given to us in Scripture, even with regard to their current lead pastor.

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Michael Todd would like you to think that his ministry is solid and biblical, and that the statistics prove this without a doubt.

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At the end of the day, this argument is not only false, it's a distraction from the very real and very dangerous aspects of Michael's ministry.

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Yet this is not the only defense that the followers of Todd have. In their eyes, Michael is vindicated because he's not just a great preacher.

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No, he's actually a modern -day prophet of God. What would make you wake up?

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Go to your daughter's room. Open up your laptop. Write down impossible things.

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Get in a borrowed 15 -passenger van. Drive over to a $54 million arena.

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Take this picture. And tell everybody you will one day own it? Crazy face.

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What makes you get back into the 15 -passenger van? Go to your current situation.

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Get on a platform in front of skeptical people and say this? We're going to have to go to another place.

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Crazy face. What would make you turn down $2 million? Give to other people when you were in need?

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Say you will have no debt and believe not just for a building but for the entire block?

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Crazy face. What would make you... You just watched a promotional video entitled

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Damaged But Not Destroyed. It was created by Mike Todd and his media team at Transformation Church.

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The story being narrated in the video is extraordinary, almost unbelievable. But perhaps the most shocking part is that the story actually seems to be true.

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Mike Todd actually did seem to predict that these things would happen before they did. He said that his church would grow by leaps and bounds, and that they would eventually own the

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Spirit Bank Events Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mike made these predictions in 2015.

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He even took pictures to support it. And in 2019, his church bought the building for $10 .5

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million, just as he had predicted. And so the story goes that Michael Todd's leadership should not be questioned, because he is a prophet of God who can predict the future.

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But there are a few problems with this view. Isaiah 820 says, To the teaching and to the testimony.

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If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them. True biblical prophets are people who speak according to the

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Word of God in Scripture. Therefore, they don't partner with false teachers. And they certainly don't teach falsely themselves.

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But Mike Todd does. A true prophet of God would treat the Word of God with respect. He would not smear syrup and whipped cream on it.

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But Mike Todd did. In Matthew 24 -24, Jesus says, Nothing Todd has done can be considered a genuine sign or wonder.

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But even if he did do something of that caliber, that alone would not mean that he is a biblical prophet.

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The fact is that his track record of false teaching would negate any so -called miracle or prophecy that he could perform.

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But at this point, many of his loyal fans will ask, how is it that he predicted that his church would grow and that he would buy that event center?

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It really is remarkable. The answer is simple. It was a self -fulfilling prophecy. Michael predicted massive church growth and an enormous increase in income to the point that they would need to buy an event center.

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He then worked hard and went to great lengths in designing his church to accomplish those very goals.

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That's exactly what happened. To put it simply, there is no good reason to believe that he is a true prophet of God.

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Yet in defense of Mike Todd, his followers will also point out the fact that he has apologized for some of his more reckless behavior.

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For example, the spitting incident. I just want to make sure people know that we want to help people.

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We want people to see Jesus. We want people to feel loved. We want people who are desperate to be able to find hope.

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And I'm passionate about that so much so that I try to do extreme things to help people get it.

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And yesterday it crossed the line. So I love you guys. To his credit, Michael Todd did in fact apologize for the spitting incident.

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He admitted that it was disgusting and it was a distraction. To many of those watching, it seems that Mike genuinely wants to be more careful about the way he presents his message.

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But the problem is that the spitting incident was just one isolated example. But Mike's entire ministry is full of false teaching, bizarre antics, and dangerous endorsements.

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If he is rebuked for a particularly bad example of these things, he will apologize and deflect.

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But if you point out that his entire ministry is problematic, well then he has a very different response for you.

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The enemy has been trying to convince me for two and a half weeks to vacate my spot and believe the lies of people who don't know me.

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But then I started to look at the ministry of Jesus because I had to go back to my example.

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I said, I'm not trying to prove nothing to nobody. God, you're the one who gave me ransom. I didn't want ransom. You did that.

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I don't know anything demonic that got 629 people saved. I don't, I don't know.

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I don't know. It was somewhere around Monday that I told God, thank you for considering me and this church worthy to walk in the same level.

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Of miracles and adversity that you did.

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Everybody wants the miracle. When his feet were held to the fire and his critics pointed out the serious ongoing issues in his ministry, especially his

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Easter play ransom, Mike's response was not serious reflection and a humble apology.

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Instead, he compared his ministry and the criticism of it to the trials of Jesus Christ himself.

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This is the ultimate example of Michael's false teaching. Not only is his leadership full of unbiblical doctrine, outlandish displays and suspicious partnerships, but he will defend these things to the bitter end.

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And apparently if you don't agree with him, it's probably because you're jealous. Jealousy.

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Cause judgment is that you see on the outside is usually full fueled by that scratched on the inside.

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That's why people can't celebrate what God's doing at transformation church. I'm going to say it no matter what.

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According to Michael, the reason people do not support his radical methods and his ministry is because they are jealous of his church's success.

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And of course, if anyone posts content online, demonstrating that his teaching does not accord with the

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Bible, he doesn't support that either. That's why when people make YouTube videos and do all that other stuff,

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I'm doing the best with what I got. If I'm wrong, if I've done something in error, if I've messed something up, the

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Holy Spirit and my accountability can correct me. You making a YouTube video doesn't help me.

01:00:04

Don't pray for me. Michael simply does not want people to show the difference between what he teaches and what the

01:00:11

Bible says. He says that this is exclusively between him, the Holy Spirit and his accountability partners.

01:00:17

But there's a serious issue with this perspective. Michael has been relying on his current accountability this whole time.

01:00:24

And clearly the systems that are supposed to help Michael make wise and biblical leadership decisions are simply not doing that, given the blatant false teaching and unbiblical antics that have found a home in his church.

01:00:38

Besides this, his sermons frequently get millions of views and nearly all of them get hundreds of thousands.

01:00:44

It is almost impossible to truly comprehend the sheer amount of people who have been directly influenced by his teaching.

01:00:51

But given that this is true, it is essential for discerning Christians to lovingly and biblically offer public correction to these public unbiblical sermons, especially because common sense corrections are clearly not coming from Todd himself.

01:01:05

Ephesians 4 .25 commands Christians to put away falsehood. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

01:01:15

It is simply not loving or truthful to let a Christian brother or sister be misled by Michael Todd.

01:01:22

This film has only shown a fraction of the blatant problems in the ministry and teaching of Transformation Church.

01:01:28

And yet the message of Romans 16 .17 remains that those leaders who teach false doctrine must be marked and avoided.

01:01:36

Therefore, Christians must mark and avoid the ministry of Pastor Michael Todd and Transformation Church.

01:01:44

While it is more than fair to note all of the problems in Transformation Church, it would not be fair if this film ignored the positive results of this ministry.

01:01:54

For one thing, it does seem that Michael Todd and his church have donated lots of money to people in need.

01:02:00

Also, they do promote Jesus and the Bible, which is far better than what is being promoted in the godless secular culture.

01:02:06

And while Christians should have many concerns about Michael's teaching, he has often said things that are true, good, and biblical.

01:02:13

And this is certainly a positive thing. So this film is not making the case that he and Transformation Church are intentionally trying to destroy

01:02:21

Christianity, or that they have exclusively evil motives. That would not be fair to them. Rather, this film is attempting to offer a fair and balanced description of this movement, and what

01:02:32

Christians should do with it. And unfortunately, while they have done many good things that we should agree with, it is simply a bad idea to promote and affirm

01:02:40

Transformation Church. So where do we go from here? Is there any hope for Michael Todd, or for that matter, the church in modern day

01:02:48

America? Yes. Yes, there is. In one sense, Michael is no different than any other imperfect sinner.

01:02:54

He just has a much bigger audience than most. Romans 3 .23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

01:03:02

Yet at any point, Michael could repent of these things. He could admit his faults and step down from ministry.

01:03:09

This would be an incredible example of humility, and it might even inspire other unqualified pastors to step down as well.

01:03:16

And if Michael did this, he would not have to spend the rest of his life in shame and regret. Instead, he could use his many gifts and talents that the

01:03:25

Lord has given him in service of what is good and true. 1 Corinthians 10 .31

01:03:30

says whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

01:03:36

Michael Todd should repent and step down immediately, but he shouldn't stop there. He should find a good church, and maybe a good seminary, and be instructed in doctrine that is accurate.

01:03:46

And then he should use the many gifts that God has given him for the glory of Christ. Michael's story is not over yet, and all

01:03:53

Christians should pray that he would come to true repentance and restoration by the grace of God.

01:04:02

Each and every person has a part to play in improving their family, church, and community, including

01:04:07

Mike Todd. But the real solution starts with you. You must believe the gospel, find a good local church with sound teaching, and serve the

01:04:15

Lord faithfully wherever He's placed you. But what can we do to fix the American church at large?

01:04:21

After all, Todd is just one of hundreds of pastors who preach this way. Well, if you want to be a part of the solution, you can start by making people aware of the problem.

01:04:31

Very few people are aware of the danger in this movement. So share this documentary on all social media platforms.

01:04:38

It really makes a huge difference. In fact, it is very likely that Transformation Church will use fraudulent copyright claims to remove the truth of this documentary.

01:04:47

They can stop one of us, but they can't stop all of us. You can also increase the reach of this documentary by commenting on it and liking it on whatever platform you're watching.

01:04:56

And follow Fight for Truth on all platforms, including YouTube, X, Spotify, and Rumble.

01:05:02

If you want more of these films to be created with high quality, please click the link in the description and make a small monthly donation of any amount.

01:05:10

Or go to pay .cornerstone .cc slash fight for truth. The support of our donors is what keeps our work and research fully independent from the mainstream media.

01:05:19

Thank you so much for watching, and may God bless all of you. Go serve the Lord for His glory.