John MacArthur Calls Out Every False Teacher by Name

The Danger of False Gospels and Corrupting the Gospel

Then, Satan's second approach is to sow terrors among the weak, false believers in a false gospel alongside true believers, and that is corrupting the gospel on the back end.

False teachers, false Christians, and false gospels exist, and they are destroying millions of lives with false promises from a false God. John MacArthur has been deeply criticized for calling out the false teachings of many popular Christian teachers.

Let's take a look at what he said, and then we'll share some concluding thoughts at the end, so make sure you stick around to hear them. Watch MacArthur call out the false doctrines of T .D. Jakes in the Oneness Pentecostal denomination, which Jakes has never unequivocally renounced.

Oneness Pentecostalism, Modalism, and the Trinity

Worldwide there are 24 million charismatics who belong to a group that can be called Oneness Pentecostal. What is Oneness Pentecostalism? Sometimes you see it as Jesus only. It denies the Trinity. Twenty-four million, they deny the Trinity.

About one out of every four in America. What do they believe? They believe in what is called modalism, that there's one God and He appears in three different modes. Sometimes He's the Father, sometimes He's the Son, and sometimes He's the Spirit, but He's never all three at the same time.

He has these three modes in which He can appear. A little bit of trouble with that at the baptism of Jesus, right? I mean, He's changing hats really fast. But way back in the Athanasian creed, it was settled that God is Father, Son, and Spirit, three co-equal, co-existent divine persons.

Modalism has been condemned throughout all of church history as a heresy at a foundational level that literally attacks the nature of God and cuts you off from the possibility of salvation. Probably the leading oneness Pentecostal that you would know is T .D. Jakes, who denies the Trinity.

You don't have the true God. You don't have the true Christ. You don't have the true Spirit. The modalist asserts this, there is one God who can be designated by three different names. He can be called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at different times.

These three are not distinct persons. They're just different modes of the one God. Thus, God can be called Father as the creator of the world and lawgiver. He can be called Son as God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

He can be called Holy Spirit as God in the church age. Accordingly, Jesus Christ is God and the Spirit of God, but not as distinct persons. Councils of Nicaea 325, Constantinople 381, modalism was universally condemned as heresy.

Some argue that Jakes renounced modalism during an interview with Mark Driscoll during an event called the Elephant Room. But take a look at what Jakes actually said.

I am there. I'm not crazy about the word persons. Most people who know me know that that is really, my doctrinal statement is no different from yours except for the injection of manifest instead of persons, which you describe as modalists and I describe as Pauline.

But Jakes, the word manifestation, which is a key word used by modalists, is precisely the problem. The way Paul is using the word manifest is very different from the way you are using it. Andy Stanley said this in response to the government telling Christians they can't meet because of COVID.

Church Gathering, Hebrews 10, and the Command to Assemble

People on the other end of this argument, I keep hearing them say over and over, the Lord commands us to meet. The Lord commands us to meet.

He does not. MacArthur had something to say about that.

I mean it's just a meeting and we're commanded in Hebrews 10 to assemble together and not forsake the assembling of ours to the day approaching.

Word of Faith, Name It and Claim It, and the Prosperity Gospel

Watch MacArthur call out the name it and claim it teachings of Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, as well as popular pastors who endorse Osteen, who teaches essentially the same thing.

Mike Horton in Christless Christianity, page 68, said Osteen has achieved the dubious success of making the name it and claim it teaching of Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn mainstream. There's some truth in that, absolutely.

Pat Robertson commends Joel Osteen. Of all people, Max Lucado, the largest selling Christian author, commends Joel Osteen. Ed Young Jr. commends Joel Osteen, Southern Baptist pastor, Dallas.

That's pretty mainstream. And watch MacArthur call out a host of other names related to name it and claim it theology and the prosperity gospel.

It's a scheme that people in the word faith movement, prosperity gospel, name it and claim it movement use to get money. From Benny Hinn to Marilyn Hickey to Frederick Price to Joyce Meyer to Kenneth Copeland to John Hagee, Robert Tilton, all of them, all the way down to Paula White.

They all claim that every so-called Christian has the personal divine power to recreate life's realities into exactly what he or she wants. It's all theirs. And you use the name of Jesus, the genie, you rub the magic lamp, and Jesus the genie pops out just waiting to be activated by the power of sovereign faith in a person to give that person what he or she wants by the power of attraction.

All this in the name of Jesus Christ is not just a lie. It's a lie that basically preys on those who are desperate. It's a predatory lie. It's for predators who want to become rich at the expense of disappointed, troubled people.

Well all of that leads me to the star of the day, Joel Osteen.

MacArthur has had a lot to say about Joel Osteen. Let's take a look at some of what MacArthur has said.

I regret that he has replaced me on Larry King. It drives me completely nuts.

We'll hear from spiritual advisor Deepak Chopra, John MacArthur, and more, all next on Larry King Live. Great pleasure. Welcome to Larry King. Now an old friend, frequent guest with us on our previous show, Joel Osteen.

This is how MacArthur summarizes Osteen's teachings.

Joel Osteen is a pagan religionist, a legalist, and a quasi-pantheist. I'm not done. This is my pulpit. I can be here as long as I want. Now, on the other side of that, Jesus Christ is a footnote to satisfy his critics, thrown in at the end to get people off his back who are irritated by the absence of Christ in his ministry.

The evidence of this is that Osteen never teaches about sin or biblical repentance. Yet at the end of all his sermons, he invites people to repent of their sin, which he has never taught them about in the first place.

Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again.

MacArthur also critiques Osteen's Word of Faith theology and his best-selling book, Your Best Life Now.

And what is he saying? What is his message? We save ourselves from all the things we don't want, all the things that are wrong in our lives by our own internal divine faith power. That's his whole operation.

In his book, Your Best Life Now, and by the way, I want to hasten to say he's absolutely right. If you believe in what he says in that book, this will be your best life. It'll be a whole lot better than the next one.

He is absolutely right. But if you want your best life now, go for his theology. If you want your best life forever, avoid it. What does he say in Your Best Life Now? He says that we are able to create by our faith and our words the dreams we dream and the desires we have.

Health, wealth, happiness, success, all the same old, same old temporal things.

MacArthur goes on to say a lot more about Osteen in this sermon. But since we've covered the main points, we'll stop here and move on. This is what MacArthur has said about women pastors.

Women Pastors and Disobedience to Scripture

Perhaps women pastors and women preachers are the most obvious evidence of churches rebelling against the Bible. I can't think of anything that's as far-reaching and transcends all denominations as the woman's rebellion against the Word of God with regard to women preachers.

Women who pastor, women who preach in a church are a disgrace. And they openly reflect opposition to the clear command of the Word of God. This is flagrant disobedience. It has been acceptable in our culture and now acceptable even in the evangelical world.

And, you know, I always tease him and say, I didn't know women couldn't teach until people started telling me that they couldn't.

Stephen Furtick, Beth Moore, and Claims of Special Revelation

MacArthur had this to say about Stephen Furtick.

Stephen Furtick, unqualified.

Hey, because God broke the law for love. I said to every sinner, God broke the law for love.

He's saying to every lawbreaker, God broke the law. Jesus broke the law for love.

And the process of discipleship is not God changing you into something else.

It's him revealing who you've been all along.

I've been covenant with God Almighty. I am God Almighty. That teaching gift has always been in you. You just had to get past what you would put on yourself. The idea that I'm not a preacher, I'm just a little girl.

I don't have anything to say. That was always in you.

MacArthur had this to say about Beth Moore.

As that most famous woman preacher says, I didn't surrender to a calling of man when I was 18 years old. I surrendered to a calling of God. It never occurs to me for a second not to fulfill it. I will follow Jesus.

Jesus tells me what to do, really. The only defense is either you're the author of scripture or you're the author of a higher scripture than God, or you get personal revelation. One of the conversations that that woman had with Jesus went like this.

How are you doing this morning? Jesus said. I said, I'll get to you in a minute. He said, Oh, don't mind me. I'm doing fine. How are you? This is the daily routine of somebody who's trying to justify their disobedience by special, intimate, personal revelation where Jesus talks only to them.

Hillsong, Bethel Music, and Discernment in Worship

Watch what MacArthur had to say about Hillsong and Bethel Music.

Should we listen to songs that have like good Christian lyrics but are written by false Christians, maybe such as Hillsong or Bethel or those kind of stuff?

There are a lot of songs written by real Christians that are bad theology, really bad theology. There are some songs written by non-Christians that are good theology, but I do think it's important not to get sucked into those movements.

Hillsong is an aberrant movement with really aberrant theology. Bethel is the same or worse. But it doesn't mean that there isn't now and then something they produce that is true, and you can sing it as true.

So just be discerning. But they are powerful movements, both of them. Bethel because of the Jesus culture music group. Hillsong because of Hillsong Music. If they didn't have that music, they wouldn't have a movement, either of them probably.

But the theology of both, particularly Bethel, is taking the Holy Spirit's name in vain constantly, constantly. So you don't want to be a part of that movement. But again, the clock that doesn't run is right twice a day.

So every once in a while, people will come across the truth.

Mark Driscoll, Labels, and Access in Ministry

Here's what MacArthur had to say about Mark Driscoll.

The charlatans and the frauds, the compromisers, need access. They need access. So they will borrow whatever term they need to borrow. Like Mark Driscoll calling himself reformed and then becoming a charismatic when the reformed people threw him out.

They will always do that. The labels are how they deceive.

Many Christians today criticize MacArthur for calling out other Christian teachers by name, saying it is divisive and unloving. However, MacArthur does not call people out by name because he thinks he is superior to them or because he has a personal vendetta against them.

Rather, he calls them out because he cares about the truth and he cares about people's souls.

We want the governor and all who follow him and all who reject the Lord to know that no matter what they have done, he offers salvation. He offers salvation. I think with a new kind of resolve, I want to ask you to begin to pray for the salvation of the governor and the people around him.

We can't do anything else.

And without people like MacArthur, who are willing to call out false teachings and false teachers by name, many will be deceived by these false teachings and false teachers to the destruction of their souls.

It is not loving to stay silent and allow people to be deceived by false Christian teaching. Rather, the most loving thing we can do is warn people about the dangers that threaten their eternal soul.

There are people who, in the name of Jesus, pervert the gospel and misrepresent Jesus. And they must be contended. They must be refuted. They must be exposed. Why? Because if you pervert the gospel and misrepresent Jesus, you undermine salvation.