Why Are Charismatics So Weird? The Theology and Antics of Michael Todd

The Purpose of the Re-Uploaded Video and the Ongoing Series

Okay, dear ones, a quick public service announcement here. Some of you may be confused by this video because you're thinking, wait, I thought I saw a video on Justin's channel about Mike Todd a few weeks ago, and indeed you did.

So I have posted this video before. It was up for, I don't know, a week or 10 days or so, but I needed to take it down because I was compelled to make some changes towards the end of this video, a section that is dedicated to making you aware of some other YouTube channels that I recommend to people.

And so I needed to make a couple of changes there, and so those changes are in place now. So if you've already seen this video on Mike Todd, don't want to watch it again, but want to see the changes, just kind of skip there to the end of this video and you can watch that.

Or if you have not yet seen the video on Mike Todd, well, here you go. Enjoy. Alright, hope it is helpful to you, dear ones. Thank you very much, and that concludes this theological PSA. Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Justin Peters. I hope that this finds you and your family doing well today. I want to thank you so much for joining me for this podcast. This is the next installment on my ongoing series entitled, Why Are Charismatics So Weird?

It's been a while since I've made an installment on this particular series, not for lack of material, that's for sure, just for lack of time and other things that I wanted to present to you on the channel.

Michael Todd, Transformation Church, and the Prosperity Gospel

So anyway, today we're going to be talking about Michael Todd, and this is someone I've not yet addressed on my YouTube channel, but I have been talking about him in my seminar, Clouds Without Water, for almost a year now.

And the clip that I'm going to show you today, I've had in my seminar for probably a good eight, nine months or so. But anyway, Michael Todd is the pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I actually dropped by there several months ago when I was in Tulsa.

Kathy went with me and I was preaching at a church there. So this is an enormous church. Michael Todd has been the pastor along with his wife. She is a co-pastor, but they have been pastors of this church since 2015, and he has been a meteor in the evangelical world.

I mean, he has just shot up, and now he's everywhere you look. It's an enormous church growing by leaps and bounds. He is very prominently featured on TBN now. In fact, I was just talking right before I recorded this with Stephen Kozar, the Messed Up Church channel, and he said that TBN's YouTube channel is just dominated full of Michael Todd videos.

He's one of the, maybe the most prominent preacher now on TBN, and I would assume along with Stephen Furtick and Osteen and some of those other guys. So who is Michael Todd? Well, I went to his church's website and poked around a little bit to try to show you exactly what they believe or claim to believe.

They do have a doctrinal statement, but boy, you have to hunt for it because I almost gave up thinking there is no doctrinal statement on this website, but there actually is one. You have to click right here.

You see that it says, Our Vision, which is not the doctrinal statement, Culture Code, and then Concrete, and it never occurred to me that the doctrinal statement would be under Concrete, but that is where it is, and they have a doctrinal statement like all evangelical churches that would pass a basic doctrinal smell test, but I wanted to show you a couple of, took a couple of screenshots here.

They are absolutely a health and wealth church, health and wealth, so they absolutely preach the prosperity gospel. I know this print there is small, but you should be able to make it out, all the typical things that, you know, we should be healed of any physical ailments, any sickness and disease, and we should be prosperous financially, so health and wealth gospel, typical stuff, and they also hold to the five-fold ministry, which means that they believe that modern-day Apostles are a thing, capital A, Apostles are a thing.

So the theology of Transformation Church, Word Faith, Prosperity Gospel, New Apostolic Reformation appears to be kind of a blending of all of this stuff, all of the worst things that plague the evangelical movement.

So Michael Todd, go through the, you look at the staff people, the executive pastors, and so apparently they have six pastors at the church, four of whom are women. So you know right there that you're not dealing with a real church, and here you see Charles Metcalfe, he along with Michael himself, apparently the only two male pastors at this church.

It says here he's the pastor of experience. I don't even know what that means. Your guess is as good as mine, but at any rate, that's right off the bat, so that's pretty easy. So yeah, everything that's wrong with the evangelical world is kind of encapsulated in Transformation Church.

Infantilizing the Church Through Shock-Value Gimmicks

But Michael Todd is also extremely childish. This is a picture of him when he went viral for rubbing spit on it to his brother's face. He is the poster boy for the infantilization of the church, in other words, making church dumb, watering it down to an almost unbelievably stupid level, infantilizing the church, making it childish.

And I want to show you, I took a few screenshots from his YouTube channel, and these are some screenshots of recent sermons that he's done within the last year. And look at this, so he was doing a series, and that's apparently what he does, he does a series of sermons.

But here is one entitled, Failure Useful. Now notice the FU is prominently displayed there. That's intentional, and if you don't think so, well, here's another sermon, Father's Unaware, and then Forgiving Unfair, and then Framing Unforgiveness.

Again, the FU prominently displayed. Forgive you, FU. And here's another one, lest you think that he just happens to be, you know, the FU just happens to be the first letters and the words of his sermon.

Well, here's the title of his sermon, rather. Here is another sermon, and the title of this is Offense Under Construction. So the first letters don't work, so he highlighted an FU to, of course, emphasize the FU.

This is intentional, and it's for shock value. And you've heard me say before, many of you have, these churches are not churches. They're not feeding the sheep, they're entertaining the goats. Here is a screenshot of a sermon he did a few months ago.

Now honestly, ask yourself, is that a man that you would take seriously as your pastor? I mean, look at this. This is absurd. It is childish. How in the world, I mean, who in their right mind would take seriously a man that looks like that, and take him seriously as their pastor?

Not in a million years. A true Christian, a true Christian would not. So now we could stop the video right there. Why are charismatic so weird? I mean, I've shown you enough weirdness already, but I want to show you this video where Michael Todd is trying to explain the Trinity.

The Trinity Is Not Three Expressions

Watch this. You've just been taught wrong. It's one God. Everybody say, one God. Say it like you mean it. One God, three expressions. Okay. Okay, we're gonna pause.

Right there. Notice he said one God, three expressions. Now that is not Trinitarian theology. He didn't say one God, three persons, which the Bible teaches. Rather, one God, three expressions. Now in fairness to him, going to his doctrinal statement, you see here's a screenshot.

They do claim to believe in the Trinity. They make that claim, but some of you have heard me say this before. I'll say it again for those of you who haven't heard me say it. I like doctrinal statements, but I like good detailed doctrinal statements, not the standard copied and pasted statements that thousands of churches use and they just pass around.

You get it off the internet somewhere and stick it on your website, and that's your doctrinal statement. Most of the churches haven't even read the thing, much less do they write it themselves. Well, same thing here.

Oftentimes, false churches will often teach against their own doctrinal statement. You need to know that. False churches will have a statement of belief, doctrinal statements, that will pass a basic doctrinal smell test, just to kind of get yourself over the bar and deflect from criticism.

But they teach against their own doctrinal statement regularly, and so be very careful with doctrinal statements. Good for what they are, but don't assume that a church is a real church just because they have a doctrinal statement that would pass a basic doctrinal smell test.

Why the Water-and-Ice Trinity Analogy Fails

Okay, so let's go back to Michael Todd as he is going to wax eloquently on the Trinity.

What is this? It's water. That's what we say, but if you want to be very scientific, this is H2O. Okay, this is H2O. I'm thirsty. Let me ask you a different question. Hold on real quick. We established this is what?

It's H2O. What is this? You say ice? If we go down to its basic form, this is H2O. Now, it's in a different form than the liquid version. This is a different expression. What is this? This is H2O too.

It's dry ice, and it's a different expression. So if that was God the Father, God the Son, this is God the Holy Spirit. Still H2O, but it takes on a completely different form. Oh, and this is what God is about to do in your life.

You're about to see evidence. Cringe. The only.

Thing that's as bad as this theology is his science. The difference, dry ice is not H2O. Dry ice is CO2. So not only is this theology wrong, his science is wrong, but he's so enthusiastic about his error.

He's just so excited about his error. But the theology, of course, is much more serious because this is a terrible illustration of the Trinity. God is not like water and ice and then vapor. You've heard this illustration of the Trinity before.

God is like water. Sometimes water is liquid, sometimes it's solid and ice, and then it's vapor. Not dry ice vapor, by the way, but when water evaporates and goes up into the clouds and starts that whole water cycle thing.

But, dear friends, that is not a good illustration of the Trinity. In fact, I will pass off briefly to my esteemed colleague, Donald and Connell. Some of you.

May have seen this, but watch. Okay, Patrick, tell us a bit more about this Trinity thing. Yeah, Patrick, tell us. But remember that we're simple people without your fancy education and books and learning, and we're hearing about all of this for the first time, so try to keep it simple.

Okay, Patrick? Yeah, real.

Simple, Patrick. Sure, there are three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet there is only one God. Don't get what you're.

Saying here, Patrick. Not picking up what you're laying down here, Patrick. Could.

You use an analogy, Patrick? Sure, the Trinity is like water. And how you can find water in three different forms, liquid and ice and vapor. That's.

Mortalism, Patrick! What? Mortalism, an ancient heresy confessed by teachers such as Noatus and Sibelius, which espouses that God is not three distinct persons, but that he merely reveals himself in three different forms.

This heresy was clearly condemned in Canon 1 at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, and those who confess it cannot rightly be considered a part of the Church Catholic. Come on, Patrick! Yeah, get it together, Patrick!

Yeah, that's.

Modalism, Patrick. That is a classic example of a modalistic understanding of God, because water, yes, it can exist in three different forms, but not all at the same time, so that's a bad analogy of the Trinity.

In fact, I'm going to take it a step further and say that there is no good analogy of the Trinity. Let's look in Isaiah chapter 46 verse 5. God is speaking, "...to whom would you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me that we would be alike?".

Dear friends, that's not a challenge. That is not God saying, okay, try to come up with some kind of analogy to explain my nature and illustrate my nature. I want you to, you know, like a three-leaf clover.

Yeah, that's a good one. Or like me, for example, you know, I'm a husband, I'm a father, and I'm a grandfather, but I'm also a son and a brother, and so I've come to think of it. I'm a number of different things, but I'm just one person, you know, and so, you know, that's a good illustration of the Trinity, right?

No, no, it's a terrible illustration of the Trinity. Oh, but God is like, He's like an apple, you see. You know, you've got the skin of the apple, and then you've got the fruit part, and then you've got the seeds, and God's like an apple, or God's like an egg.

Have you ever heard that one? God's like an egg. You got the shell, and the white, and then the yolk, you know. No. Stop with the analogies of the Trinity. Stop. That's the whole point of Isaiah 46 verse 5.

That's what God is saying. There is no one, there is no thing that you can compare God to, so stop. And for those of you who are Sunday school teachers, or maybe you do vacation Bible school in the summer, you know, I've seen, I know churches, thousands and thousands of churches do this, especially with the kids.

Well, nowadays they do it with the adults too, but you know, with the kids, and you know, okay kids, think of God, you know, God's, He's one God, but He's three, and so it's kind of like, He's like an egg.

He's like an apple. He's like water. He's like a three-leaf clover. No, He's not. He's not like any of those things. For one thing, all those things are created by the Creator. There are no analogies for the Trinity, so please, stop.

That's the whole point. That's what God was saying. You cannot compare Him to anyone or to anything. Okay, dear ones, as we close, I want to give a shout out to a few YouTube channels that do similar work to what I do here that I would commend to you as well.

Recommended Channels for Exposing False Teachers

My channel is not completely devoted to engaging false teachers. A lot of people think that it is, but it's not just part of what I do here. But there are some other channels that do some excellent work along these lines, engaging false teachers, showing the fallacious nature of what they teach, the heresy, the false prophecies, and giving you the biblical truths, corresponding biblical truths.

So I want to give a shout out to some channels here. Now, this is not to say that I would agree 100 with every jot and tittle of the theologies of the respective channels I'm about to name. You would find differences in eschatology, for example.

You would find differences even in baptism, but kind of like John MacArthur and R .C. Sproul. They differed on baptism. They differed on eschatology, but they were united in the gospel. And so these channels would agree with me on what the gospel is.

Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone might have some differences. Well, would be some differences in secondary issues, but nonetheless, they do really good work. And so these would be some good resources for you as well.

Bezel T3 does some excellent work along these lines, as does Colin Smith and his channel Fight for Truth, and Digging Deeper with Andreas Wiegand. And Andreas, as far as I know, he and I do agree on every theological point, as far as I know.

But Andreas is a great, great guy, and I commend this channel to you. Fighting for the Faith with Chris Rosebro, another great guy. I've met him in person a number of times. Good guy. Polite Leader. Polite Leader is another channel I would commend to you.

Alan is a great guy. I've met him on a few occasions. Super nice. The Treasure Christ channel. I commend this to you. As you can see, a ton of subscribers. This is formerly known, or was formerly known, as Reformed Wiki 2 .0, and he does really, really good work.

John Henry runs this channel, and I've not yet had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but would certainly love to one day. He does really, really good work. Very well done channel, by the way. Lots of really good graphics and good material.

And I commend to you, as well, the Smart Christians channel. And this channel is run by an acquaintance of mine. His name is Cory Minor, and Cory does really good work, too. In fact, I had the honor of being interviewed by him for his channel, and it was a pleasure to do so.

Just a really nice guy. A joy to talk with. And so, I commend to you the Smart Christians channel. Spencer Smith. I've not met Spencer in person yet, but Lord willing, I will here in a few months. But he's got a good channel.

The Messed Up Church, Stephen Kozar. And you'll see Paulette on his channel with him, as well, from time to time. So, he's got some excellent stuff. And then WWUTT by Gabe Hughes. I'm really surprised this channel doesn't have more subscribers than what it does.

It should have. So, excellent, excellent short little videos that he puts together. Really good stuff. And Gabe is a friend of mine. I commend him to you. And last but not least, Long for the Truth. Long for the Truth with Daniel Long and his wife Robin.

Just really good guys. I've not met them in person yet. I've talked with Dan a number of times on the phone. But excellent, excellent stuff. Especially a lot of what he does with a historical background of the charismatic movement.

Really, really good stuff. And so, I commend these channels to you. This is not an exhaustive list. In fact, I'm pretty sure after I start uploading this video, I'll think, oh man, I should have mentioned so-and-so.

So, anyway, but I commend these to you. And I think they will be of help. Alright, dear ones, thank you very much for watching. Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.