BEWARE Of This Megachurch!

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 Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands.

Chris is the most popular megachurch pastor that you ironically may never have heard about.

He doesn't have nearly the same star power as Joel Osteen or Stephen Furtick, but his church is the

largest in the state of Alabama.

And more than this, Church of the Highlands is consistently in the top five megachurches in the United States when it comes

to attendance.

So let me give you a quick summary before we get into the doctrine here.

Chris Hodges, I believe, would most easily be identified as a non -denominational evangelical.

He is the co -founder of ARC, or the Association of Related Churches.

This along with his other influence makes him a major player in the modern seeker -sensitive evangelical landscape.

He is also the chancellor and founder of Highlands College, which claims to train ministers.

According to their website, graduates of this academy can be found in 250 ministries, including those in

34 US states and 10 countries.

So needless to say, given their influence and scope, it would be a very good idea for us to review the doctrine

of Chris Hodges and Church of the Highlands.

And the first thing you need to know is that Chris's theological associates and partners in ministry, if you will,

are highly suspect.

For example, Church of the Highlands has allowed Jensen Franklin to preach from their pulpit.

In our recent video on Jensen, link in description, we demonstrate that his teaching consistently takes the Bible

out of context in order to preach a man -centered, word -of -faith message.

And on another Sunday morning, they asked Charlotte Gamble, a female preacher, to give a sermon to their

congregation, despite the fact that 1 Timothy 2 .12 -13 clearly prohibits the practice of letting

women formally teach or exercise authority.

So, Church of the Highlands has also clearly caved to the modern feminist agenda, in addition to having

connections to the word -of -faith movement through Jensen Franklin.

Like I said, their doctrinal connections, even on the surface, are very concerning.

Romans 16 -17 tells us to mark and avoid those who teach false doctrine, not to partner with them

in ministry.

But you see, it's not just their associations that are cause for alarm.

It is also the direct teaching that Chris Hodges has to offer.

This begins with a problematic philosophy of ministry.

Watch this.

Reaching more people, and that's what I love about you, Life .

Church.

You'll do anything short of sin to reach as many people as you can, so listen to me.

Just keep serving.

Listen to me.

Keep serving.

Keep giving.

So in that clip, he was preaching at Craig Rochelle's Life .Church, and he praises them for, quote,

doing anything short of sin to reach people.

It appears that Craig Rochelle himself is the source of this statement originally.

And he himself has a video entitled, quote, Anything Short of Sin.

So clearly, this philosophy of ministry is shared by many trendy evangelical churches all

across the nation.

But here's the problem.

This view is seriously lacking, biblically speaking.

The main issue is that it lacks a positive biblical framework to follow.

Instead of saying this, we should be saying that we will do everything we can to glorify God and to obey

His Word in order to reach the lost.

As believers, our aim is not simply to not sin, but to actively follow the Word of God.

Let me offer you another example.

Suppose a young man came up to you and said that his only goal in his relationship with his girlfriend was to do

anything short of sin with her because he loves her.

Obviously, no one would recommend using this framework to think about your relationship because it will inevitably

lead to spiritual problems.

At the core, it takes the aim off of bringing glory to God, and instead puts it on merely avoiding

sin while doing whatever is most pragmatic and personally enjoyable.

Additionally, this standard of ministry could be used, and indeed has been used, to support all kinds of

ridiculous actions in the Church.

Many modern churches are now putting on huge, elaborate displays of entertainment, including

actual circus shows.

And they claim all of this is being done so that they can get people to come to their church services so that they'll be saved.

But going to a circus isn't a sin in and of itself.

Therefore, by the standard of Chris Hodges, which is admittedly a very low one, that's perfectly fine.

As long as you're doing it to get people saved, no problems here.

But make no mistake about it, the philosophy of ministry that says we'll do anything short of sin to reach the lost

inevitably leads to all sorts of problems.

The evidence for this is all around us.

But in Matthew 28, Jesus gives the Great Commission to His disciples.

He does not say, okay boys, do whatever you want to save the lost, as long as it doesn't break any of the Ten Commandments

or something like that.

No, Jesus tells them that in, quote, making disciples of all nations, they should diligently be,

quote, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

You see, our evangelism should show a high regard for the whole counsel of God's Word.

It should also have a distinct reverence for what Church is.

But it should not just be an attempt to do whatever you want, as long as no one can prove to you that it's a sin.

But beyond having a flawed understanding of ministry, Chris Hodges has a very concerning view of how

Christ relates to the Church.

Watch this.

And you need to know that the one that you serve is distracted by that which is lost.

So I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but this is an absolute fact.

And that is, he looked down from heaven and saw this beautiful group of people worshipping Him, and then his eyes went right back to the world that's

lost.

He just kind of took a peek, and like, oh, that's nice.

And if, because he's distracted by that which is lost.

So for context, Chris is preaching a sermon here on evangelism.

And the idea he's trying to get across is that Jesus cares about those who are lost.

And all of this culminates in him demonstrating what he believes to be Jesus' posture to those who are

already saved in the Church.

Jesus looks down from heaven, and He sees the wonderful people worshipping Him in the Church.

And He just peeks over for one second and says, oh, that's nice.

And then He immediately puts all of His attention back on saving lost people.

But this does not describe the posture that Jesus has toward the Church in Scripture.

In reality, Jesus has great attention on His Church.

That's why the bulk of the New Testament is His inspired Word given to the Church for instruction, on how to

preach, fellowship, worship, excommunicate, unify, discern, baptize, etc.

We don't see Jesus just merely peeking over at the Church and saying, oh, I guess that's nice.

No, in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus actually gives direct verbal messages to the seven churches.

And all throughout the New Testament, the Church is called the Bride of Christ.

And on that topic, in 2 Corinthians 11 -2, Paul suggests that one of his foremost goals is to

present the Church to Christ as pure.

Acts 20 -28 tells the Church leaders to, quote, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the

flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the Church of God, which He

obtained with His own blood.

Jesus tells pastors to pay careful attention to His Church.

But Chris represents Jesus as just taking a peek at the Church because He's much more focused on saving lost

people.

One thing you need to understand is that this one -dimensional overemphasis on making your Church attractive to

unbelievers is very common in the seeker -sensitive, trendy Church movement.

And ultimately, this combined with an extremely pragmatic style of worship creates the man -centered

teaching that we see today.

And speaking of shallow man -centered teaching, watch what Chris Hodges preaches about Proverbs 29 -18.

Check this out.

Own your own, and watch this, this is very critical, that dreams and visions or the level of them in your life

is key to your own personal success.

And I'll read you one verse in three different translations to prove it.

So in Proverbs 29 verse 18 it says, where there is no vision,

where there is the lack of that, people perish.

And it's not talking about a physical death, it's talking about your marriage dies, your hopes die, your

aspirations die, your emotions die.

Now let's take a look at the description of that sermon because it demonstrates what Chris Hodges does with this

passage.

It says this, You may not realize that it's God's will for you to not just dream, but dream

big.

Allow yourself to believe in the impossible and take the first steps in understanding that you don't have to

live within your limits.

So according to Chris, when the Bible says that without a vision the people perish, it's actually saying that if

you don't dream big in your life, then your dreams will never come true.

And that would of course be very sad.

But this is nothing more than a twisting of what the Word of God actually says.

Proverbs 29 18 actually says,.

Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint.

But blessed is he who keeps the law.

The vision being spoken of here does not refer to your personal goals, but to the objective revelation

of God.

That's why the very next verse says, blessed is the one who keeps the law, or the written commands of the Lord.

The passage is not about any of the unique dreams and goals that you have for your life.

Nor is it a warning that without those things, your life will be worse.

The meaning of the text is clear, but Chris Hodges has turned it into a man -centered motivational follow -your

-dreams speech.

And this is inevitably what happens when your framework for ministry is, I'll do anything I can besides sin

to attract lost people to my church.

This is precisely what happens when you become so focused on making your church appealing for the unchurched that you

forget what church is actually for, the edification of the saints.

This is supposed to include sound teaching and, as 2 Timothy puts it, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

And frankly, this doesn't seem to characterize what we see at Church of the Highlands.

But equally concerning is the fact that Chris Hodges can often be seen preaching from the message translation.

Watch this.

Last week I talked about being salt and light.

Today I've entitled this message, This is My Story.

This is my story.

It comes from this passage of Scripture out of 1 Peter chapter 2.

It says, but you are the ones chosen by God.

So the problem with posting a passage from the message translation and preaching from it is that the message is not a

translation, and it has no place being preached from the pulpit.

And you may think this view is only shared by a small group of very legalistic people, but that's not the case.

Even an institution as mainstream as Biola University has warned people about the message.

Here's a quote from Kenneth Bearding, their professor of New Testament.

It's time we stopped reading, buying, and recommending the message.

The problem is that the message imports thousands of meanings into the biblical text that don't

exist in the original Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic originals, as well as frequently dropping meanings

that are actually in the text.

Consider Ephesians 2 .2, an example given in Gary Manning's article, also on Biola's website.

In the English Standard Version, it says that before we were saved, we were once following the course of this

world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of

disobedience.

But instead of saying that we followed the prince of the power of the air, in other words, the devil, here's what the

message says.

You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live.

And thus, the meaning of Paul's writing here is completely and totally lost.

The fact is, the message is not Scripture.

It is a direct perversion and twisting of Scripture that is absolutely unbiblical.

Hebrews 4 .12 says,.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division

of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the

heart.

Evidently, the Word of God is very, very powerful.

So we could just trust the Word of God to have this powerful effect.

But for seeker -sensitive pastors like Chris Hodges, they often present a man -centered, watered -down,

entertaining message that is much more accessible than it is accurate.

Make no mistake, this is meant to please man rather than God.

And I could go on, because there are several more examples of irresponsible and unbiblical teaching from Hodges and

his church.

But let's just put this all together.

First, even if Chris had never taught anything unbiblical himself, the fact that he lets false teachers

preach to his church is already reason enough to avoid his ministry.

Second, Chris promotes an extremely pragmatic philosophy of ministry that puts the preferences of the

unchurched man above the standard of God's Word.

Third, he directly manipulates Scripture for the sake of motivating his audience to follow their dreams.

And finally, he preaches from a so -called translation that actively distorts God's Word.

And if all of that wasn't enough, please also recognize that his teaching is exceedingly shallow and avoids real

theological depth.

We highly recommend that you get your biblical teaching elsewhere.

I pray this has been a blessing to you, and please know this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a

biblical critique.

Pray for this channel and for anyone discussed in the video.

Many of you are looking for teaching resources or trying to find a new church.

If so, check out the teaching ministries and church networks linked in the description.

And by God's grace, let's move forward joyfully, holding to the truth of God's Word.

Thank you so much for watching that video.

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Thank you, and God bless.