This is SHOCKING!

Let's talk about whether T .D. Jakes, John Piper, John MacArthur, Bill Johnson, and Andy Stanley are false teachers. We'll talk about notable aspects of each of these teachers and then we'll share what we think about them.

T. D. Jakes, Modalism, and the Prosperity Gospel

Teacher number one, T .D. Jakes. Jakes is the pastor of the megachurch, the Potter's House. We've already made one video about Jakes, so to learn more about what Jake teaches, we'd recommend checking out that video.

Here, we'll just talk about three things concerning Jakes. Jakes has never officially renounced modalism, which is a heresy that is a distortion of the Trinity. Modalism teaches that the three persons of the Trinity are actually just three modes of God, not three distinct persons.

During an event called the Elephant Room, Jakes seemed to affirm his belief in modalism.

My doctrinal statement is no different from yours except for the injection of manifest instead of persons, which you describe as modalist and I describe as Pauline.

But the word manifestation is precisely the problem. God doesn't just manifest himself in three different ways. God exists in three distinct persons. And the fact that Jakes didn't clear up exactly what he believed here suggests that he hasn't actually changed his views on the subject.

Jakes teaches the prosperity gospel, which is a false gospel because it teaches people to come to Christ to receive worldly blessings, rather than because they're sinners who need a savior.

That's what the Bible meant when it said, give and it shall be given to you again. Good measure. Take it together and run it over. There's no way you can serve me and me not serve you. The more you give to me, the more I give back to you.

The prosperity gospel is inherently man-centered and draws people to Christ for the wrong reasons.

And if you will sow what you got left, God said, I'll give you back whatever it was.

People who come to Christ because they think Christ can solve their financial or health problems and not because they recognize their sinfulness before God and their need for a savior haven't truly come to Christ.

Jakes has also compromised concerning his view of homosexuality, which the Bible clearly teaches is sin.

And trust me, I've talked to enough LGBT, they are not all the same. Oh, for sure.

Anyone and all Christians are the same. No, no. But how do we, first of all, has your thinking evolved on this? Evolved and evolving.

Evolved and evolving. The Bible's teaching concerning homosexuality are clear and unchanging. So, Jakes saying that his views have evolved and are evolving is another big red flag.

I mean, think about it. A guy can, you will not hear a guy stand up for the most part and preach on the issue of homosexuality without 15 minutes of justification. Now, I love homosexuals. I have friends who are homosexuals.

I am not here to say, you know, just say what the book says.

What's our conclusion about T .D. Jakes? We would say that Jakes is clearly in the category of false teacher. Modalism is a distortion of the Trinity, which is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

If you worship the wrong God, then you're not worshipping God at all. Also, Jakes teaching of the prosperity gospel draws people to have false faith in a false Christ. We would recommend staying far away from Jakes teachings.

John Piper on Justification and Final Salvation

Teacher number two, John Piper. Piper was the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for 33 years. And he is the author of many popular books. Let's talk about three things concerning Piper.

Most of Piper's teachings are extremely solid and his teachings have had an enormously positive impact. When I was a new Christian, Piper's teachings were extremely helpful to me. And I grew a lot in my faith through them.

You never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never outgrow your need for the gospel. Don't ever think of the gospel as that's the way you get saved. And then you get strong by leaving it and doing something else.

No, we are strengthened by God through the gospel every day till the day we drop.

Piper's passion and ability to communicate biblical truth effectively led him to become an extremely popular and beloved Christian teacher. There is one aspect of Piper's teachings that is very concerning.

Namely, Piper's view of the relation between justification and salvation. In an article titled, Does God really save us by faith alone? Piper writes,. What's concerning here is that Piper differentiates between justification and final salvation.

Saying that in final salvation, we are saved through that fruit and that faith. However, the traditional orthodox view is that we are saved through faith alone. And that fruit or good works is just the inevitable result of true saving faith.

Not any part of the grounds of our salvation. Someone who defends Piper about this is Mark Jones. And you can find the link to his article in Defense of Piper in the description below. Someone who is critical of Piper on this point is Patrick Hines.

And you can find a link to a video he made about this issue in the description below also. Here's a short clip.

These works of faith and these fruit of faith or fruit of the spirit that come by faith are necessary for final salvation.

Now, immediately, all of Piper's defenders are going to start chiming in and getting all upset. You're just interpreting him in the worst possible light. Even John Gerstner and others have said that works are necessary for salvation.

Of course, you would need to explain yourself. They are a necessary fruit. They necessarily accompany true faith in Christ. But they are not and do not form any part of the grounds of getting into heaven.

Which is our justification.

What do we think about this? We think that, at best, Piper is using terminology that is extremely unhelpful and unnecessary. And, at worst, Piper knows exactly what he is teaching and exactly the distinctions he is making.

And what he is teaching is dangerously close to heretical, if not outright heretical. The doctrine or justification through faith alone is foundational to the gospel. And Piper seems to be very clear in saying that good works are part of the grounds of our final salvation.

In an article titled, Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin, Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election, Piper wrote,. I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality, unrepentant boastfulness, unrepentant vulgarity, unrepentant fractiousness, and the like to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby sex switching, freedom limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.

It seems that Piper is presenting Trump's bad character as being morally equivalent to the democratic agenda, which involves destroying babies in the womb and enabling young children to make life-altering decisions about their gender, among many other things.

So what's our conclusion about John Piper? This is a pretty hard one since I love Piper and have benefited much from Piper's teachings. I would say that I still recommend a lot of Piper's teachings and resources.

At the same time, I think his teachings about justification is, at best, extremely dangerous. Also, Piper treating Trump's character as being morally equivalent with democratic policy is pretty concerning.

We also have some other disagreements with Piper's theology, such as his view of covenant theology and the Old Testament moral law, but we just say it's an important issue, not an essential one. So we would still recommend a lot of what Piper teaches, but we would also recommend exercising extreme caution and discernment regarding particular areas of Piper's teachings.

MacArthur is the pastor of Grace Community Church. Let's take a look at three things concerning MacArthur. One of the biggest criticisms against MacArthur is that he teaches lordship salvation and salvation by works.

Number two is John MacArthur. John MacArthur. Sermonaudio .com, his sermon is hit number three most in popularity. It's titled, How Can We Witness If We Don't Know What The Gospel Is? Now, you notice with all these most popular sermons, it has to do with scaring your salvation, questioning if you really repent it.

This is a lordship salvation Calvinist trend. Now, lordship salvation, what do they teach? They teach this. If you have begun, if you got saved at the beginning by faith, there should be works that come out of here.

That should come out next. What did Paul say? If you begun in the spirit, which is by faith, verse three, are ye now made what? Perfect by the flesh? So then now you're saying that, oh, so now I'm perfecting my faith with works.

That's what lordship salvation teaches. You have real faith. You have genuine faith when you have works.

MacArthur's teachings concerning the relationship between faith and works is actually completely biblical.

So works are the manifestation of the transformation. They're not the reason for it. They're not the means of it. I think Ephesians 2, 8 to 10 is probably the best portion to make that clear. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.

You're saved by faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. But we are saved unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

So what's our conclusion about John MacArthur? In general, we would highly recommend MacArthur's teachings. He boldly and unashamedly teaches the full gospel message of sin and salvation, including the role that repentance plays in salvation.

We have some disagreements with aspects of MacArthur's theology, such as his view on dispensationalism. But we wouldn't consider disagreements like these to be essential to the gospel. Teacher number four, Bill Johnson.

Bill Johnson, the Kenosis Heresy, and the Prosperity Gospel

Bill Johnson is the senior pastor of Bethel Church. We already made a video about Johnson. So to learn more about what he and Bethel Church teaches, check out that video. Let's talk about two things concerning Johnson.

Johnson has been known to teach several heresies. Johnson taught the kenosis heresy, which teaches that in his life on earth, Jesus restricted himself to living merely as a man.

Do you know that Jesus so restricted his function on earth that he actually couldn't heal anyone? He couldn't multiply food. He couldn't cast out devils. He couldn't do any of that stuff. Because he had restricted himself to the life of a human being that would have to be dependent on the Father through the Holy Spirit.

Johnson taught that Jesus was the first person to ever be born again, even though the Bible clearly uses the term born again to refer to salvation.

Did you know that Jesus was born again? I asked the first service, and they said no. But I will show you it's in the Bible. Jesus was born again. He had to be. He became sin.

Johnson teaches that the office of apostle still exists today.

When people started calling you an apostle, I remember you being super uncomfortable with it. It wasn't a title you could grab for yourself. Just coming to terms with like, do we even do this? What are the implications?

Do you mind talking some about your own personal journey about how you let people call you that?

Johnson also teaches the prosperity gospel, specifically that it's always God's will to heal people.

Does God ever choose not to heal? No. God chose 2 ,000 years ago to make a purchase.

Again, this is a big problem because it leads people to come to Christ to get healed, not because they recognize their sin and their need for a savior. Johnson has a few videos on YouTube that attempt to clarify some of the heresies we just listed.

In general, though, we don't think that Johnson definitively renounced his heretical teachings.

He chose to live in that restricted limitation place where because of his dependency on the Father, there's now no limitations, but it's the Holy Spirit working through him.

Johnson did clarify that he doesn't believe Jesus was born again in the same sense that he was saved, but that he sometimes just says things to make people think. However, it's just completely unhelpful to say things in terms like that.

You can check out Johnson's video yourself and decide for yourself whether Johnson has successfully dispelled the accusations against him. So, what's our conclusion about Bill Johnson? We would say that Johnson is pretty clearly in the category of false teacher.

He teaches numerous things that distort foundational doctrines of the gospel and of the Christian faith. We would recommend staying far away from Johnson's teachings. Stanley is the founder and senior pastor of North Point Ministries.

Andy Stanley on the Old and New Covenants

Let's talk about a few things concerning Stanley. Stanley teaches some things about the Bible that are pretty concerning. Stanley teaches a dichotomy between the Old Testament and New Testament that is dangerous.

Of course, God loves everybody. We all believe God loves everybody. Let me just be real clear. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach God loves everybody. The New Covenant teaches God loves everybody.

The Bible teaches God mostly loves Jews, and the Bible teaches God loves everybody. They are two incompatible covenants. One was a means to the other, but once the other got here, this was God's way of saying to his first century followers, Okay, you've got to let it go.

No. God is exactly the same in the Old Testament as he is in the New Testament. Sure, there's a difference between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant, but to talk about God using these kinds of terms is both unhelpful and dangerous.

Stanley also said that we should stop asking, what does the Bible say? Here's a question we've got to quit asking.

You're going to hate me for this, but we're not done. We've got another week. What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say about that? I mean, how many times have you asked that, heard that?

I've been asked this a thousand times. What does the Bible say about that? This is a really bad question. We have to quit asking. Here's why. Because the Old Covenant says stone her and the New Covenant says forgive her.

That's what the Bible says. The Old Covenant says pray for your enemy's death, and the New Covenant just says pray for your enemies. That's what the Bible says.

Stanley is presenting the Bible as being contradictory here, and he portrays God's law in the Old Testament as being bad. But the truth is that we simply need to interpret both the Old Testament and the New Testament correctly, not diminish the authority of the Bible.

Stanley says a better question to ask is, what does Jesus teach?

Let me tell you a better question. What does the New Covenant teach? Or let's be more specific. What does the New Testament teach? Or even better, what does Jesus teach?

A couple of problems here. First, the New Testament only makes sense within the context of the Old Testament, and Paul in the New Testament calls the Old Testament law good. And second, it's extremely unhelpful and dangerous to elevate Jesus' words above the rest of the Bible.

The entire Bible is God's infallible revelation. So the parts of the Bible with the red letters are not any more important than any other part of the Bible. Stanley also said this.

What does Jesus teach? Andy, are you saying that the two covenants of the Bible conflict?

Yes. Of course, there's a difference between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. But Stanley is just broadly saying that the Old Testament and New Testament conflict, which is simply not true and extremely unhelpful and dangerous to say.

Stanley also says that talking about sin, hell, and judgment are just an Old Testament thing, and that the New Testament is different.

Have you ever heard preachers kind of rant about sin? It's like they're angry at sinners. They're angry about sin. They're just judgmental. They're angry at sinners and happy about hell. Angry at sinners and happy about hell.

That's Old Covenant thinking that leaked in. That's mix and match. That's an Old Covenant prophet railing against the nation of Israel. And God's going to judge you, and God's going to get you, and God's going to get you, and God's going to judge you.

It's Old Testament. It's Old Covenant. But, of course, Jesus also talked a lot about sin, hell, and judgment.

And Stanley teaches this. In the New Covenant, you know what we discover? That sin doesn't make God angry. Sin breaks God's heart.

We could go on and on with more clips of problematic things Stanley teaches. But we'll just stop here for now. What's our conclusion about Andy Stanley? We probably wouldn't put him in the category of false teacher.

But we would highly recommend staying away from his teachings. Stanley distorts so many aspects of what the Bible actually teaches that we would say his teaching is just generally unhelpful and dangerous.