This May Be Steven Furtick's Most Bizarre Teaching Yet (And That Is Saying Something)

Justin Peters

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This may be the most bizarre scripture interpretation that I've ever seen from Stephen Furtick.

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Welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Justin Peters. I hope that this finds you and your family doing well today.

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I want to thank you so much for joining me for today's program. So we're going to be watching about a three and a half minute or so clip of Stephen Furtick from Sunday, February 18th, 2024, as he is preaching at his church,

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Elevation Church in North Carolina. And he's preaching from Matthew chapter 20, verses 29 through 34,

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Jesus giving sight to two blind men, or maybe they weren't blind or something, or let's just watch

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Stephen and I'll interrupt a time or two. In verse 34 it said, they received their sight and followed him.

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Now all the way back to the beginning of the passage, you see this little chapter heading right here? That is not originally in the

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Bible. This is the part that is the word of God that was translated from the original language.

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This is something somebody put in a study Bible to tell you this is a new section. Okay, he is right.

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So far, so good. That chapter heading, section heading is not inspired, is not part of the original manuscript.

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So therefore, Stephen, probably best not to try to exegete the chapter heading, but nonetheless, let's see what he does with this.

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The Bible is a question. It says two blind men received sight.

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And here's my question. If this happened, why are they still called that?

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Now I must admit, the first thing I thought when I saw this video clip was I had this tremendous urge to get one of those little battery powered lint removal things, a little razor, and give his sweater a good going over.

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But after I got over that, so Stephen Furtick focuses on this section heading, two blind men received sight, and he says, if they received their sight, why are they still called blind?

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And then he kind of just saunters back like he just made some deep, profound point and found some inconsistency with the chapter heading, and he just knew insight that apparently nobody else has ever seen a problem with before, but he did.

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And he just kind of, you know, like he's all that in a bag of chips and like he just did something big.

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And then you hear people in the background saying, come on, come on. Called that. And I find myself wondering, like, am

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I the only one seeing a huge problem with it? Okay. Okay. Two men who were blind receive their sight from Christ.

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What are you supposed to call them? I mean, they were blind. That's why they needed to receive their sight.

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This is, this is unbelievable to me, but I digress. Let's go back to Stephen Furtick.

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If they received their sight, it stands to reason that they are no longer blind.

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I would like to suggest that we retitle this passage. Don't change the passage. Just call it what actually happened.

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Yes, let's do that. Let's call it what actually happened. Let's call it, oh,

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I don't know. Two blind men receive sight. Call it what actually happened.

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You know, in watching this video from Stephen Furtick, I couldn't help but think about this guy.

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You've probably seen him before. Maybe instead of calling this chapter, two blind men receive their sight because if they see they're no longer blind, but people will memorize how they met you and call you that for the rest of your natural days.

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I would suggest that God is the author of your story. I would suggest that he is the

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Alpha and Omega. I would suggest that it's him holding the pen. I'm smiling,

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Abby. Do you see me smiling? I'm smiling because I know he turned it around for me. I'm smiling because I know it doesn't matter what they called me.

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I'm smiling because I know he did some things for me. Can I do this? Am I going to get in trouble?

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Am I going to get in trouble? No, I don't think I'm going to get in trouble because I think we need to call it two bold men.

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How do you like that, devil? Quick theological PSA, public service announcement.

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Dear friends, there should never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, ever be an occasion in which we talk to Satan.

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Don't do it. And by the way, Stephen, Satan is not the one who wrote that section heading.

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I'm not going to call them what their condition said they were. So Stephen Furtick says,

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I'm not going to call them what their condition said they were. I'm not going to call them what their condition said they were.

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Sounds so magnanimous and noble, does it not? Well, not so much when we actually look at scripture.

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Let's turn our attention to Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 18.

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And the disciples of John reported to him, to Christ, about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples,

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John sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the one who is to come? Or should we look for someone else?

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When the men came to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the one who is to come?

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Or should we look for someone else? At that very time, he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many who were blind.

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And he answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you have seen and heard.

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The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.

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The dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to them. Jesus called them by what their condition said they were.

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I mean, what else are you supposed to call them? They were blind, and they received sight.

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They were lame, and now they walk. They were dead, and now they are raised. What else are you supposed to call them?

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Dear friends, this is just astonishing to me. I mean, he actually had to sit down and think this up.

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How did this passage not come to his remembrance? I mean, I'm just stunned at this.

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I truly am stunned at it. It takes far more effort to sit down and come up with such a cockamamie, harebrained idea that you're going to somehow find a fault with a chapter heading that isn't even at fault in the first place.

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I mean, it's factually accurate. Two blind men received their sight.

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This is what you get when you're not satisfied with a biblical text.

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You won't do the work of exegesis and just preach the text as it is. In this case, it would have been far easier just to preach the text as it stood and not zero in on a chapter heading or section heading that wasn't even inaccurate in the first place.

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It's spot -on accurate, and Jesus himself affirmed it. Stephen Furtick said that he would not call them by what their condition said they were.

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But Jesus would. All right, dear ones, I hope this has been helpful for you.

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Yet another reason to flee from Furtick. This man is not qualified. John MacArthur was absolutely right when he was asked, oh goodness, it's been 8, 9 years or so, maybe even closer to 10, maybe 8, whatever, years ago, 8, 9, 10 years ago, his opinion of Stephen Furtick, and he just paused for a second, and then he said, unqualified.

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Stephen Furtick, unqualified.

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He's right. Stephen Furtick is unqualified, and that was almost a decade ago.

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And he hasn't gotten any better. He only gets worse. And dear friends, the point of this video is not just to point out

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Stephen Furtick's failures as an exegete and as a preacher and the fact that he is unqualified.

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The overarching point is, and what I want you to take home and share this with your friends, with your family members who are following him or someone else who is unqualified to be in the pulpit, preaching is the highest responsibility that there is.

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My wife, Kathy, made a point a number of years ago, and I thought it was very insightful and very helpful.

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And she said, in every area of life, we seek out the best, right?

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We want the best doctor for our medical care. We want the best dentist to fill our cavities.

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We want the best plumber. I mean, we want a good, qualified plumber to fix our leaky sink.

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We want a proficient, qualified mechanic to fix our car.

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We want the best accountant. I mean, we seek out, in every area of life, we seek out those people who are trained and qualified and proficient and excellent at what they do, except in the area of preaching.

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The one area that is by far the most important, the shepherding and nourishing of our eternal souls, the handling of the word of truth, the word of God, rightly dividing the word of truth.

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In that area, it's like, eh, anything will do. He tells some good stories.

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He makes me laugh. He's entertaining. He's a good speaker. He's fun to listen to.

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I like the way he dresses or she dresses because there's just so many female preachers nowadays, and that's a whole other issue.

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Dear friends, there is nothing more important than rightly dividing God's word of truth.

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Preaching, there is no weightier task, weightier responsibility. And I can tell you, every time

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I take the pulpit, I tremble because I know the weight of the task before me and the one whom it is

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I am representing to people in the sense of giving

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God's word to them. That terrifies me. Stephen Furtick, he's not qualified to be doing what he's doing.

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Seek out men who are qualified, who take preaching seriously, who will do the work of exegesis and exposition.

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Stephen Furtick is not that person. All right. Thank you very much for joining me, dear ones.

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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.