This is VERY Disturbing...

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Let's talk about whether Stephen Furtick, Paul Washer, The Bible Project, Joyce Meyer, and Matt Chandler are false teachers.

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We'll talk about notable aspects of each of these teachers and then we'll share what we think about them.

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Teacher number one, Stephen Furtick. Furtick is the pastor of Elevation Church, one of the largest mega -churches in the

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United States. We've already made several videos about and related to Furtick, so to learn more about what

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Furtick teaches, check out those videos. Here, let's just talk about three things concerning Furtick.

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Furtick teaches numerous things that are extremely problematic, which we've covered in other videos, so we'll just mention a few here.

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Furtick's preaching is generally man -centered and focused on what people are capable of, rather than on their sinfulness before a holy

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God. It's always been in you. It's always been in you.

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That teaching gift has always been in you. You just had to get past what you would put on yourself.

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The idea that I'm not a preacher, I'm just a little girl. Furtick's wife also preaches at Elevation Church, which is contrary to the

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Bible's clear teaching that women are not to teach over men in the church. 1

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Timothy, chapter 2, verse 12. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.

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Rather she is to remain quiet, because the Bible says so.

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And Furtick's wife's preaching is likewise pretty man -centered. And God is not looking for perfection, because if he was, he wouldn't have picked us.

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He wouldn't have picked me, and he wouldn't have picked you. He's looking for potential. He is perfectly okay with the space between who you are right now in this moment and who you're going to become, because he sees the fighter in you.

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Furtick has said that God broke the law. Because God broke the law for love.

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

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And Furtick taught this about what God can't do. And there's one thing that even Jesus can't do.

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One thing that even the Son of God can't do. Even Jesus cannot override your unbelief.

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Furtick approves of and endorses several teachers whom we consider to be extremely dangerous, such as T .D.

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Jakes. Come on, give it up for this red jacket. Joel Osteen.

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This preacher only wears a suit at Lakewood.

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And Joyce Meyer, among others. The greatest Bible teacher alive today came to Elevation Church.

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Code Orange Revival. New York Times best -selling author. Written over 100 books.

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I know this must be revival, because God doesn't send Joyce Meyer to us anywhere.

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What's our conclusion about Steven Furtick? Is Furtick a false teacher? We would probably say he falls into the category of false teacher.

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There might be a way to interpret the bad things he has said in ways that are not completely heretical.

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But whether or not Furtick clearly falls into the category of false teacher or not, we would warn people to stay far away from his teaching.

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Furtick's preaching is generally man -centered and he tends to prioritize seeker -sensitive methods of getting people into the church over preaching the gospel of sin, repentance, and salvation.

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Teacher number two. Paul Washer. Washer is a preacher and evangelist whose sermon at a youth conference went somewhat viral.

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Like Jesus Christ. I don't know why you're clapping.

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I'm talking about you. Let's talk about two things concerning Washer.

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One accusation against Washer is that what he teaches about repentance equates to works salvation.

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And in order to be saved, the Bible calls all men to repent of their sins and to believe the gospel.

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I get so sick of this repent of your sins garbage coming from Baptist preachers. We gave the gospel to a

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Muslim today and he said salvation through repenting of your sins. Did he not say that?

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We gave the gospel to a Mormon today and he said salvation by repenting of your sins. Hey, why are these

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Baptist teaching the same garbage that the Muslims are teaching? That the Mormons are teaching? That the

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Catholics are teaching? It's works! But of course, if you teach about repentance the right way, it's not at all works salvation.

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It's not about if you truly believe you'll follow Jesus as Lord. What it's about is this.

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If you truly believe you have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and you have become a new creature and you're just going to follow

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Jesus as Lord. The accusation that Washer teaches works salvation is a complete straw man.

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What's our conclusion about Paul Washer? We would highly recommend Washer as a solid

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Bible teacher. Washer teaches the full gospel of Jesus Christ, including the biblical teaching that true saving faith is always accompanied by regeneration or being born again, which results in a transformed life that submits to God's commands.

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Personally, Washer is one of my favorite preachers. Teacher number three,

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The Bible Project. The Bible Project features the teachings of Tim Mackey and it creates very quality animated

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YouTube videos. The Bible Project channel currently has over two and a half million subscribers.

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Let's talk about four things concerning The Bible Project. Some of The Bible Project's content is quite good.

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In general, The Bible Project does a pretty good job of summarizing the books of the Bible and various themes in the

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Bible and how they all point towards Jesus Christ. The videos are beautifully animated and engaging to watch.

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There is at least one serious concern that we have with the theology of The Bible Project and Tim Mackey, who is the primary theologian behind The Bible Project.

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Mackey pretty clearly denies the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which is an extremely important doctrine, if not a central doctrine of Christianity.

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Let's take a look at this part of a podcast that Mackey did about the atonement. And what we do is we read that story onto the story of what's happening here.

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And then we bring Jesus into it. And what we end up with is a story that says,

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God's perfect, he's holy, and he's perfect. You're not, so God has to kill you.

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He has to kill you. He needs his pound of flesh in the name of his justice.

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And so he's going to kill you because he's angry at you. But instead, he's going to kill

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Jesus. And he takes out his anger on Jesus. And then he allows you, after you die, to go to the good place and not the bad place.

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You can sing forever the praises of the God who didn't kill you. How you guys doing? Now, some of you,

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I'm creating a caricature. But for some of us, you might think like, yeah, isn't that the story of Christianity?

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Isn't that what Christians believe? Well, yes, that actually is the story of Christianity.

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And that is what Christians believe. Of course, we would phrase some things in slightly different ways.

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God's anger at sin is different from human anger. It's a righteous wrath towards evil.

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And instead of saying that God needs his pound of flesh, we would say that God's justice requires punishment for sin.

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And this is one of those cases where there's so many distorted, not even half -truths, one -third truths in what

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I just described to you, that there's nothing recognizable of actual gospel in what

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I just described to you, if you actually read what's in the New Testament. But what

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Mackie described basically is the gospel, which is that Jesus became a propitiation or substitution sacrifice who absorbed

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God's wrath for sin so that sinners can escape the punishment of hell that they deserve and be counted righteous by God through faith.

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Mackie says these aren't even half -truths. They're only one -third truths, that there's nothing recognizable of actual gospel there.

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Let's see his reasoning. If you read the character of God in the New Testament, if you read the character of God in the

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Old Testament, you'd be able to spot what I just said to you as a total distortion and perversion of God's character, and of the good news, and of the meaning of atonement.

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This symbolism communicates to me that when I behave, when I fail, when

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I sin, I'm introducing death into God's good world. Because you take one prideful human who thinks they're better than everybody else, but you put them in a tribe.

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You multiply that person by a million, and then all of a sudden we are better, and our well -being is way more important than that tribe's well -being.

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And then we get into a fight over resources like water or something like that. What's going to happen?

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We're going to kill each other. We're going to kill each other. The brokenness and the distortion of the human heart, sin, creates death in God's good world.

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And this animal dies to tell me that the stakes are so high. So, according to Mackey, sin is serious because it creates death in God's good world.

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And we've already heard Mackey object against the idea that sin is serious because it offends a holy

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God, and therefore those who commit sin deserve punishment for their sin. One final clip here.

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And so for these Israelites, every time you go and you offer this animal, what you're reminded of is not that God is angry at you.

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It's the exact opposite. God gave me this whole ritual symbolism to remind me that He loves me.

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He doesn't want to kill me. Because God could just do that if God wanted to. Mackey's conclusion here is only half right.

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Yes, God provided animal sacrifices to show that He has a solution for sin and wants to save people for Himself.

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However, the animal sacrifices also show that God hates sin and requires punishment for sin.

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The animal sacrifices, like Jesus, were a substitute sacrifice for sin, not just a symbol that sin creates death in the world.

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The Bible is abundantly clear that part of God's character is wrath and justice towards sin and those who commit sin.

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And Mackey and The Bible Project are clearly against this very important Bible teaching.

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Mackey also teaches some very concerning, very unorthodox things about hell. He teaches that hell is something that humans created.

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What does it not say? It doesn't say in the beginning, God made heaven and earth and hell.

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God didn't make whatever hell is. God didn't make it. It's nowhere to be found on page one of your

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Bible, right? But John 1 3 says, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

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It's a clear biblical teaching that everything that exists exists because of God.

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Mackey also teaches that hell is something that humans do to each other, not God actively punishing sin.

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Hell is a reality that is present now. It's a reality that humans unleash on each other and on God's good world to ruin and destroy relationships and to destroy people.

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Hell is something that we have created on earth and God hates hell.

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And he, the story of the Bible is a story about God wanting to heal his world and get the hell out of earth.

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What Mackey is teaching here is extremely unbiblical. The Bible clearly teaches that hell involves

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God pouring out his wrath upon sin and that it is a place of actual punishment.

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Hell is definitely not just something that humans have created on earth or something that humans do to each other.

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Mackey teaches that God just can't punish humans with death because of God's promise. If God wanted to kill me, if God actually hated me and wanted to kill me, can

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God simply do that? Yes. If God was actually just super angry and uptight and wanted to walk out on Israel, could

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God have done that and been in the right? Partially, yes. Yeah. But also, he wouldn't have been in the right if he walked out on Israel.

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And also, God wouldn't be in the right if he just killed you. Because God made a promise.

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He made a promise to Abraham. He made a promise to the people of Israel. He made a promise to King David that somehow, instead of wiping out human beings, he was going to commit to saving them and restoring them and healing them and redeeming them.

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And if God goes back on his promise, then he is not good and he's not just.

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And so, it's this paradox of God's justice and his love in the

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Bible is that God has committed himself to saving the human family through a human family, the family of Israel.

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And that whole story comes to its culmination in the person of Jesus. But God never promised to save the entire human race.

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God promised to save a remnant, to save his people, to save his elect.

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What's our conclusion about Tim Mackey and the Bible Project? Certainly, you can learn a lot about the

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Bible from the Bible Project videos. They are well -researched and well -produced.

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At the same time, there are some very, very serious problems with Mackey and the

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Bible Project's theology. Are they enough to put them in the category of false teacher? Maybe.

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If not, it's a very close call. Mackey's views on substitutionary atonement and hell are extremely dangerous.

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If you choose to watch the Bible Project's videos, we would recommend doing so with extreme caution.

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Teacher number four. Joyce Meyer is a popular author and speaker. And she is the president of Joyce Meyer Ministries.

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We've already made several videos about and related to Meyer. So to learn more about what Meyer teaches, check out those videos.

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Let's talk about three things concerning Meyer. Meyer teaches the prosperity gospel, which, as we've said numerous times, is a false gospel because it leads people to come to Christ for the wrong reasons, namely, to receive health and wealth.

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Meyer unashamedly teaches people to give so that they can receive. When you go to the conferences, you ask people to give money to you.

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You say, do it cheerfully. Because the Bible says, giving shall be given unto you.

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So giving is a major part of the whole Christian gospel.

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Do you believe that if someone gives money to the ministry, that more will come back to them?

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Yes, absolutely. I think that's what they mean by prosperity gospel.

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And Meyer is completely unconcerned about people in desperate situations giving money to her, hoping to receive something in return from God.

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But you worry at all that sometimes your message will be heard by someone in the most dire circumstances.

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It's a sort of roulette wheel, a sort of gamble with God. OK, well, I can't pay the rent, but I'll give it to Joyce and we'll see what happens.

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Do you worry at all that that happens? I totally know. I don't worry about that. Meyer teaches several different heresies.

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Meyer teaches that she and Christians in general do not sin anymore. I am not poor.

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I am not miserable. And I'm from the pit of hell.

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That is what I were. And if I still was, then Jesus died in vain. I'm going to tell you something, folks.

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I didn't stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head. I wasn't a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that's heresy and they want to hang you for it.

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But the Bible says that I'm righteous and I can't be righteous and be a sinner at the same time.

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Of course, this is completely contrary to the Bible, which teaches if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

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And the truth is not in us. Meyer teaches that Jesus was born again.

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Do you know something? The minute that blood sacrifice was accepted, Jesus was the first human being that was ever born again.

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Meyer teaches that we are more like gods than humans. And, you know, I was listening to a set of tapes by one man and he explained it like this.

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And I think this kind of gets the point across. He said, you know, why do people have such a fit about God calling his creation, his creation, his man, not his whole creation, but his man, little gods.

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If he's God, what's he going to call him? But the God kind. I mean, if you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind.

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If cattle has another cattle, they call it cattle kind. So, I mean, what's God supposed to call us?

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Doesn't the Bible say we're created in his image? Meyer teaches that Jesus was tortured in hell.

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The devil thought he had it. The devil thought he'd won. Oh, they were having the biggest party that never been had.

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They had my Jesus in the floor. And don't you think that God was pacing?

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The angels are in agony. All the host of up on him.

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They got on him. They got him. There is much more we could cover, but we'll just stop here for now.

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Some people say Meyer repented of teaching the prosperity gospel. I'm glad for what

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I learned about prosperity, but it got out of balance. We disagree. Saying that what she taught was a little out of balance is not the same as repenting of the entirety of the prosperity gospel.

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Meyer never apologized to the countless people she's deceived into giving her money for the wrong reasons.

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What's our conclusion about Joyce Meyer? We would say that Meyer clearly falls into the category of false teacher.

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For the numerous reasons we talked about, we would recommend that people stay far away from Meyer's teachings.

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Teacher number five, Matt Chandler. Chandler is the lead pastor of the village church and the president of the acts 29 network.

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Let's talk about three things concerning Chandler. Chandler has taught many things that are good and helpful.

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Here's one example. What you're looking at in predestination is God's complete and powerful sovereignty over the salvation of men and women.

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Now, I want to just speak to the more commonly held objections against that idea of predestination.

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One, I don't think that turns us in any way into robots or we're not talking about determinism, right?

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So why do anything? Because God's going to do everything. No, this predestining

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God, this predetermining God has invited us into what he is up to all over the world.

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And so we share the gospel with everyone and we keep sharing the gospel with everyone with every breath we have because we don't know when the

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Lord will open the heart. What I am confident of is that it's not about me and my presentation and that God is able to save.

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So the most hardened, I'm not interested. I'm, there's no way I'm ever going to give my life to Jesus Christ.

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Should not, should not damper my enthusiasm. There is certainly a lot you can learn from Chandler.

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However, in recent years, Chandler has taught some things about race that are concerning.

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In his message at the Gospel Coalition's MLK50 conference, Chandler singled out white pastors.

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White pastors, I need to chat with you. You have got to say something.

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Let me help. I've learned some things. I don't think your first sermon should be a sermon on white privilege.

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I mean, if you want to go out in a blaze of glory, you just preach that.

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But I would prepack. And Chandler said that African -Americans who stand against the kind of systemic injustice that Chandler is arguing for are probably trying to win approval or position.

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Becoming friends with the African -American that agrees with everything you say isn't helpful to you as a white evangelical and probably has that African -American trying to win approval or position.

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The problem with what Chandler is teaching here is that Chandler is equating inequity with a nebulous concept of injustice instead of pointing out specific instances of injustice that we should be fighting.

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But the people who are arguing for systemic racism today, they're not pointing to laws.

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They're not saying, hey, there's a law that prohibits black people from dot, dot, dot, because there are none.

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They don't exist. So when people say that today, what they mean is there are inequities.

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And the way you explain inequity is racism.

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Chandler also has a view of prophecy that is at least somewhat concerning.

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Lord, what would you want me to encourage Danny with? I'm trying to listen.

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And then automatically in my head, there's a picture of a ship, a pirate ship. And then there's like cannons on the pirate ship and there's a shark chasing the pirate ship.

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Now at that point, you're like, nope, no, not going to happen.

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Right? And here's what I want you to do. I want you to just step out and you can even admit like we're growing together and we're going to fail and it's going to get weird.

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It's going to be awesome. Like, I'm just going to go to Danny and I'm going to be like, hey, brother, you heard my sermon.

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I was praying. Danny was a pirate ship. It's a shark chasing it.

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There were cannons. I'm not going to interpret that form. I'm not going to be like, what I think that means is that maybe you're stealing some stuff from people and Jesus is the shark and you need to repent.

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I'm not going to interpret that form. I'm just going to go. And in a great deal of humility, I'm just going to be, does that make any sense to you?

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The problem is that this kind of subjective prophecy is completely foreign to scripture and can lead people to thinking

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God is saying things he isn't really saying. What's our conclusion about Matt Chandler?

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Chandler certainly has a lot of good teachings that you can learn a lot from. At the same time, there are other parts of Chandler's teachings that we have significant concerns about.

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We would just say that if you choose to learn from Chandler, it would be wise to exercise a lot of caution.