Pastor Michael Todd Called Me Out!

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

In today's video, we're going to be talking about Michael Todd, pastor of Transformation Church.

We haven't made a video about Mike in quite some time.

In fact, I had absolutely no plans to make any videos about him for the foreseeable future.

But this weekend, my wife came into my office and showed me a very curious video on Mike Todd's Instagram.

It's a promotional video for a podcast that Mike recorded with his longtime friend and mentor Tim Ross.

A podcast that we're going to respond to in this video.

But first, watch the clip.

In today's video, we're going to be talking about Michael Todd, his church conducted their so-called Easter church service.

Because why preach the word of God when you could create an entertaining spectacle instead, right? And this is going to be concerning Tim Ross.

I'm going to start calling Tim Ross the cussing pastor.

Mike Todd has been under a lot of criticism because of his Easter service play.

Look, I don't know what's been going on with Tim Ross and his podcast recently.

I don't like it though.

That feedback is loud.

I am a human being.

You are a human.

We've talked about this.

Yes, sir.

But it's going to help somebody for us to process this.

In the basement.

In the basement.

Now, as you can tell, one of my YouTube videos was used in that promo clip, along with footage from various other big Christian YouTubers.

Of course, they put on dramatic music in the background.

And one of their other Instagram posts says that in this podcast, Michael Todd and Tim Ross are going to, quote, address it all.

You see, Transformation Church and these two men are almost constantly being called out for some sort of unbiblical antics.

For example, here's a video clip from Ransom, the Easter play that was put on by Mike Todd at his church this year.

Check it out.

We keep telling you it's okay.

Your little booty matter too, friend.

Y'all know they don't be discriminating.

As you can see, we have three women in skin-tight leather pants dancing inappropriately and talking about their rear ends on Easter Sunday.

Instead of a biblical sermon, this is what was offered.

And here's a video of Tim Ross giving a sermon in which he compares Jesus to a stripper.

I kid you not.

Check it out.

And it was bread to them.

What do y'all think? We don't make it rain on booty cheeks.

We don't make it rain on strippers.

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.

The only stripper I'm in love with is Jesus.

I don't know, man.

This whole thing is crazy.

And he's the one that puts that bread in my pocket.

That bread in my pocket.

That bread in my pocket.

Now, obviously, Tim is not using this word literally.

But I hope we can all agree that calling Jesus a stripper in any context in a sermon is seriously concerning.

And it points to a pattern that goes on at Transformation Church.

In their attempts to quote-unquote spread the Gospel, they use methods that are clearly not prescribed in Scripture.

In fact, there are many instances in which they use methods that are clearly disobeying Scripture.

Hebrews 12-28 says that proper and acceptable Biblical worship is offered with, quote, reverence and awe.

Comparing Jesus to a stripper, or having an inappropriate play where women in your church talk about their backsides, is not reverent to Christ or His Church.

And add to this the fact that Romans 16-17 tells us to, quote, mark and avoid false teachers who have unbiblical and unsound doctrine.

Despite this command, here we have a picture wherein Mike Todd has his arm around Joel Osteen and even calls Joel his spiritual, quote, uncle.

He also said that Joel Osteen pours out Biblical wisdom.

Now, Joel has been preaching the false doctrine of the Prosperity Gospel for virtually his whole career.

This is the idea that God saves you so that He can guarantee physical and financial blessing and healing in your life.

And to top it all off, Mike's church also has female pastors, contrary to 1 Timothy 2-12, which says that pastorship and eldership in the church are only male offices.

And I know, all of this is extremely unappealing to our modern culture.

I understand that.

Churches care less and less, and professing Christians care less and less, about Biblical topics like reverence, Biblical standards for church services, immodesty, male leadership, or false teaching.

But these are all Biblical truths, nonetheless.

And they cannot be avoided if you're actually going to believe what the Bible says.

So with that in mind, you would probably think that Michael Todd and Tim Ross are going to take the concerns and the criticisms of the people outside their church and actually demonstrate Biblically why those concerns and criticisms are wrong.

But as I watched their podcast, which was over an hour and 45 minutes, they did nothing of the sort.

Instead, here was how the podcast started.

The earlier we can get to vibing and riding this wave about where we're going.

So, this is literally my brother from another mother.

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.

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

And he is a voice to generations.

I don't just say a generation, because he's reaching more than one.

He is a creative genius.

So, we start with some world-class praise for Michael Todd.

He's not just one of the most influential pastors in modern America.

No, he is one of the leaders of the entire global Christian faith, according to Tim Ross.

Yes, he's also a voice to the generations and a creative genius.

But let's see if this high praise turns into anything substantive, especially when they talk about Michael Todd's Easter play called Ransom.

Check it out.

My response was that I'm going to get canceled.

And his response back was, get canceled.

That's essentially what he told you as well.

Get canceled.

He told you to get canceled.

And here's the thing.

I'm going to spit so I can get canceled.

No.

I'm going to do Easter.

No.

You've been doing Ransom for seven years, fam.

That was the seventh time we did Ransom.

This is the seventh iteration of Ransom.

Over 600 people gave their life to Jesus.

900.

I'm so sorry.

I've left 300 souls out that a house party is still being cleaned up in heaven for.

There's still confetti being swept up by angels.

But nevertheless.

Wow.

100 shy of 1,000 people give their lives to Jesus.

But you're a demon.

You're putting on demon play.

I can't even say it without laughing.

I'm so sorry.

You're putting on demonic plays.

So first we are told that God spoke to Mike Todd, as he always claims that God did, and told him to get canceled for the kingdom of God.

This seems really convenient, right? You do something clearly unbiblical, like have women dance immodestly and talk about their butts in your church on Easter Sunday.

And then of course when you get justly called out for this, instead of offering a defense or an apology, you simply say, God told me to get canceled and to take one for the team on this one.

Again, very convenient.

But then Tim Ross says that Mike has been doing the Ransom play for seven years, even before his church was famous.

And this is a theme that runs through the whole podcast if you watch it.

Transformation Church keeps getting into controversies in the last few years for doing the same stuff that they've been doing all along.

And therefore, according to these two on the podcast, the people criticizing them must not be acting in good faith.

And they're just cherry picking whenever it suits them.

But this argument simply doesn't work.

When someone calls you out for unbiblical practices and teaching in your church, telling them that your church has been doing those unbiblical things for a much longer time than they thought is not actually a defense.

If you get called out for committing tax fraud, for example, for the last year, and then you say, but I've been committing tax fraud for a decade and nobody ever said anything about it.

That's not actually an excuse.

It doesn't make it okay.

And then of course we have the classic argument given by Tim Ross and Michael Todd.

How could the play Ransom be unbiblical when over 900 people gave their lives to Christ and believe the gospel as a direct result of it? Please don't let statements like this fool you.

Regardless of how many people got saved, Colossians 3.16 still says that the church is a place where we receive biblical teaching, admonishment, sing God-glorifying songs, and give thanks together for God's goodness.

And we do all of these things according to the Scriptures.

And as we said before, Hebrews 12.28 says that acceptable worship is offered with, quote, reverence and awe.

So just because people are raising their hands during the altar call does not mean that your church is operating in a way that is biblical.

But they continue.

And I feel like the reason why people are making their comments as loud as they do is because they won't let us finish our sentences.

And when the clip becomes the entire conversation, yikes, you're never speaking in response to context.

You're just speaking in response to your last trigger.

So the people calling out Transformation Church for these things are doing so, quote, out of context.

They're not letting Michael Todd or Tim Ross finish their sentences, according to Tim.

And they're just getting triggered like a bunch of theological Karens, right? This is yet another vague excuse that has nothing to do with the substance of the actual critique.

What context exactly makes it okay that Michael Todd partners with and affirms a ministry of a wolf like Joel Osteen? What context qualifies Mike for ministry, given that his doctrinal judgment is that bad? What context makes the inappropriate clip from his ransom play acceptable worship to God in the Church? If we're all missing the context, why not give us the context in your hour-and-forty-five-minute-long podcast? I watched the whole thing, and none of this context was ever actually given.

Instead, they spoke in vague undertones and made excuses.

Speaking of, here's the next clip.

If you search the Scripture, you find me one perfect person that God used, besides Jesus.

Ain't one.

They were all damaged.

They were all broken.

And it was their brokenness that drew them, drew them by the Holy Spirit to their purpose.

This is an argument that the megachurch pastors love to use when you demonstrate their false teaching.

No one's perfect.

None of God's chosen servants in Scripture were perfect.

Again, this is true, but it's not the point.

Yes, we're all imperfect.

And God can still use us.

That is a glorious truth, and I want us all to acknowledge it.

But how does that refute any of the claims made by the critics of Transformation Church? It doesn't.

And the Biblical response to our imperfection and our sin, especially in the Church, should be to repent for it.

Instead, Transformation Church continues their false teaching and false practices that literally dozens, if not hundreds, of Biblical churches and pastors have been respectfully calling them out on for years.

But they continue.

And this is the thing I want to say, is we may not be everybody's cup of tea.

Never will be.

And it's okay.

When I tell you it's okay.

The truth of the matter is, if we all like the same flavor, there would be one drink at the convenience store.

But if you walk into the convenience store, no matter how big or small, there's a hundred different options because we all like different flavors.

Absolutely correct.

And it's time for the Church to stop being offended if everybody doesn't like your drink.

If there is any amount, watch, if there is any amount of the thirst being quenched, we should celebrate specifically if we're all in the beverage sector of economy.

What are you trying to say? If we're all believers.

If there's any thirst being quenched, if anybody's getting saved, if anybody's moving closer to Jesus, we should be celebrating.

Should be! So now we have the, that's just your opinion argument, which is another one they love to use.

Michael Todd is just offering a different flavor of Biblical Christianity, right? We're all basically the same and we can unify on that.

Again, this has nothing to do with the point.

The whole issue is that Michael Todd and his church are not acting in a way that is consistent with historic Biblical Christianity.

Can you imagine the Apostle Paul saying that Jesus is kind of like a stripper? For that matter, can you imagine the disciple Peter having three women in his church do an inappropriate dance while they talk about the size of their rear ends? Obviously not.

You can give all the analogies you'd like, but none of this deals with the actual issue at hand.

And then, of course, Michael Todd attempts to give a Gospel presentation at the end of the video.

Watch this.

I gotta do this.

There's somebody watching, and this whole thing, the Holy Spirit's been drawing you to Him.

I don't know if there's ever been a salvation call in the basement, but I feel at liberty to say this is your day of salvation.

Indeed.

Today, you can accept Jesus.

If that's you, on the count of three, I just want you to lift your hand.

I don't want you, it doesn't matter who's around.

It doesn't matter if you're in your bed.

God says, I've chosen this moment as a holy moment, and I want to have a relationship with you.

God's literally stopping this podcast to say, I want relationship with my daughter.

I want relationship with my son.

Repeat this prayer after me.

Say, God, thank you for sending Jesus just for me.

I believe He lived and He died for my salvation.

Yes, Lord.

Today, I ask you to heal me, stitch me up.

I'm in need of your saving.

Today, your life will never be the same.

God's about to take your damage, and He's gonna use it for your destiny.

Now, I want to be clear.

Is it possible that someone in the world got truly saved by Jesus Christ because they watched that presentation? Sure, it's possible.

But notice that in this so-called Gospel message, there is not one single mention of sin, hell, or repentance.

And this is a problem, because the true Gospel message is that though we are all bound for hell and stuck in our sin against a holy God who cannot tolerate sin—Romans 3.23 and 6.23—Jesus died to save us from the consequence that we justly deserve for our sin and took it on Himself—2 Corinthians 5.21.

And now, those who believe on Christ for their salvation can be born again and dwell with Him forever in glory—Ephesians 2.8.

Instead of this, Michael Todd notably says that what you are being saved from is your quote, damage and your trauma.

And no reasonable person would come away from this thinking that God has saved them from their sin and has saved them from the hell that they deserved.

Instead, you would come away thinking that despite all of the mean things that people have done to you and all the bad things that have happened to you in your life, God still thinks you're special and really wants to spend some time with you.

And this, my friends, is not a full and complete or clear Gospel message.

It's just not.

Especially from someone who's been serving as a so-called pastor for years now.

So the truth is, despite using one of my videos to promote this podcast, they didn't actually refute a single claim that I've ever made in any of my videos.

In fact, they didn't really address anything substantive at all.

Despite the fact that the podcast was advertised saying that they would, quote, address it all.

The fact is, you need to avoid this Church and these teachers.

If you want to know more about why, see our other videos on the topic.

Please pray for this channel and for anyone mentioned in the video.

And check out the ministries linked in the description.

Like, subscribe, hit the bell, and subscribe to our Rumble channel.

And these are the amazing people who make this channel possible with their monthly support.

Today's highlighted channel supporter is Adam V.

If you would like this channel to do more research, make more videos, and reach more people, please hit the link in the description and join the Truth Army today.

And until next time, fight for truth.

Thank you and God bless.