YouTube Comments Get DEBUNKED! | Ep. 9

Racism Accusations in the Comments on Sarah Jakes Videos

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. This video is episode 9 of our series where we read unedited comments from this channel that disagree with us and respond to them.

The identities of the commenters here will be hidden for their sake. And with that, let's move into some seriously controversial comments. These comments are either implying or directly accusing our channel of, you guessed it, racism.

It seems that anyone who makes virtually any attempt to put two sentences together nowadays will eventually be called a racist, so I suppose it was only a matter of time. In modern conversation, you can't throw a rock two feet in any direction without hitting racism.

These comments were found on our previously mentioned video about Sarah Jakes. That video is entitled, quote, The True Danger of Sarah Jakes' Teaching. The link is in the description. But at least one of the comments was also posted on our video about her father, TD Jakes.

The title of that video is, quote, TD Jakes Went Way Too Far This Time. And it, too, will be linked in the description. The first comment says this, quote,. Leave black women alone, please. She is amazing and will continue to be covered by God.

Find something else to do, end quote. And the second comment similarly says, quote, I bet your views and subscriptions are going up by talking about black preachers. This is pure evil, and I can see through you.

This obsession is gross, end quote. And the third comment said this, quote,. You're supposed to be holy, but passing and throwing so many stones. Who are you to judge her words? Because you're only taking certain words from her text.

And she is a black woman speaking to black women. You will never understand it, being one, you're a man, second, because you are not black as well. And I'm not trying to make it a race thing, but this and the comments are crazy, end quote.

Here's my response. It's incredible to me that someone can accuse you of racism and at the same time fail utterly to notice how incredibly racist their own worldview is. Let me explain. Take that last comment just for one example, quote,.

You will never understand because one, you're a man, and two, you're not black. In other words, you can't do research and use basic reading comprehension skills because well, you're a white man. And here I was thinking the comment was against racism.

Isn't it ironic that this activist so passionately opposes the racism they've made up in their own imagination, but approves entirely at the same time of their own real racially charged comments happening in reality?

And then at the end, they say this, quote, I'm not trying to make this a race thing. With all due respect, what exactly were they trying to make it then? They inserted race into a conversation that had nothing to do with it, and then made the case that I don't understand a sermon because I'm white.

If that's not making it about race, I'm not sure what would be. But don't forget the first comment we read, which, if you recall, said this, quote, Leave black women alone, please. On this, we need to offer some clarity.

My video wasn't about all black women. It was about Sarah Jakes, who happens to be a black woman. Also, never once in the video did I make any comment related to her skin color, because, well, it had nothing to do with what she said or what I said.

And this whole woke people calling everybody racist thing is self-defeating anyways. I mean, think about it. If my video on Sarah Jakes is an attack on all black women, then this person's comment on my video is an attack on all white men.

This is the absurdity of the woke worldview. It's asinine and ridiculous. It doesn't lead to any actual solid biblical argumentation, just wild accusations based in social justice fantasies. But of course, we can't forget the second comment either, quote, I bet your views and subscriptions are going up by talking about black preachers, end quote.

Let's get something sorted out here. At the time of recording, by God's grace, Fight for Truth has posted dozens, if not hundreds, of videos. And not one of those videos has been critiquing someone on the basis of their skin color.

Not a single one. What we do here is we play clips of public sermons posted on YouTube and compare them to the Bible. If you would like to make a biblical argument against any of that, please do. We're all ears.

But of course, trying to refrain from making desperate and insane accusations of racism without any evidence. No one believes you, and you're wasting your time. So with that, let's move into our next comment.

Whether 2 Peter 1:4 Teaches That Christians Are Divine

This one also comes from our video on Sarah Jakes. Again, the link is in the description. But this one has a very different topic. Indeed, there were several people who offered comments similar to the one we are about to read.

In fact, they quoted what they believed to be an unstoppable slam-dunk argument against my position. If you recall, in that video Sarah Jakes said that, quote, we want to tap into our divinity. We took issue with this, suggesting on the basis of multiple scriptures that human beings are not divine by nature, only God Himself is.

Here's what one commenter said in response, quote,. So you're saying there's no place in the Bible that says we have a divine connection and origin, but the opposite of that is true. How then would you explain 2 Peter 1, 4, which says, quote, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these ye may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, end quote.

Do you still maintain your stance that the Christian is not a divine being, end quote? At first glance, this seems like irrefutable evidence against our position in the video. But is this commenter correct?

Were we needlessly and sinfully bashing Sarah Jakes for holding a biblical position? Well, no, not so fast. At least, that's not really what the evidence suggests. There are several reasons why 2 Peter 1, 4 does not support Sarah's preaching.

First, the passage is actually saying, technically, the exact opposite of what Sarah Jakes said. She said, and I quote, we want to tap into our divinity, end quote. The passage, on the other hand, talks about us being, quote, partakers in the divine nature, that is, of God.

In other words, Sarah Jakes suggested that we have a divine nature. But 2 Peter 1, 4 is actually talking about us partaking or sharing in a divine nature that we do not actually have naturally within our own nature.

So essentially, the passage does not actually say what Sarah Jakes was preaching. It does use some of the same language, but it doesn't mean the same idea. And secondly, the actual context of the passage seems to indicate that we're talking about two separate things here.

2 Peter 1, 4 talks about how God, quote, has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire or lust, end quote.

So in context, we're talking about partaking in the divine nature by accepting the promises of God graciously given to us for the express purpose of, quote, escaping the corruption of the world that is there through lust.

In other words, we're not talking about us being of equal essence or being with God. We're not talking about us being little gods. Rather, we're talking about taking part in the holy and righteous character of God.

These things are, after all, a part of His fundamental nature. And this way of reading the passage is not unique, nor is it out of line. I didn't make it up. The Greek word for partake here is koinonos, and it is also used in 2 Corinthians 1, 7 for one example.

In this passage, it is sometimes translated as share or sharing. It says this, quote, Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort, end quote.

This does not mean that the people Paul is writing to actually are the suffering that Paul is speaking about. No, he simply means to say that they share in or partake in the sufferings of others. And in the same way, 2 Peter 1, 4 can be validly interpreted as saying that we share in the nature of God by virtue of being given righteousness and holiness through faith in Him.

Thus, it makes perfect sense that the passage would end by saying we are, quote, escaping the sinful corruption of the world. And more than this, I surveyed at least seven commentaries on 2 Peter 1, 4, and exactly zero of them interpreted the passage as saying that we are divine beings or little gods or anything of that nature.

In fact, no less than three of these commentaries went to great and specific lengths declaring precisely the opposite thing, saying that the passage should never be interpreted that way. The first example is Barnes's commentary, which emphatically said, quote,.

It cannot be taken in so literal a sense as to mean that we could ever partake in the divine essence or divine being. Likewise, the very popular and reliable commentary from Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown said that this passage referred to, quote, not God's essence or being, but His holiness, including His glory and His virtue.

And Poole's commentary said this, quote,. We are said to be partakers of the divine nature, not by any communication of the divine essence to us, but by God's impressing upon us and infusing into us those divine qualities and dispositions, knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.

End quote. Again, this view is shared by many good commentators. I didn't make it up. In any case, when we investigate this, we find that 2 Peter 1 .4 does not lend any direct support to Sarah Jakes' statement, nor does it refute what we said in our response.

As a result, the argument made by this commenter is simply not convincing. So with that, let's move on to the next comment. This one comes from our video on Sarah Jakes. Here's what it said, quote,. How is it you find these sermons that are worth rebuking and correcting, unless you're trolling them, looking for them, with your religious spirit and self-righteous point of view?

End quote. So effectively, the argument here goes something like this. In order to find these sermon clips that you react to over at Fight for Truth, you have to watch these sermons looking for things to critique.

This proves that you have a self-righteous and religious spirit in you before you even get to the sermon. Here's the response that I would offer. First off, I'm not sure why the word religious or religion has become such a dirty word in the modern Church.

Historically speaking, being religious wasn't seen as a synonym for being legalistic or pharisaical. It didn't mean that. James 1 .27, in fact, says, quote, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

End quote. Most English translations render the word religion here, and not in a negative sense. In fact, it's clearly in a positive sense. So when we use phrases like religious spirit in a derogatory way, usually coming from charismatics, I think we're staining that term unnecessarily and confusingly.

But in any case, let's get to the main meat of the comment. This commenter took issue with the fact that I approached Sarah Jakes' sermon with the intention of critiquing it, if indeed she said anything worth critiquing.

Here's the issue with that. First, the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 .21 to, quote, Test all things and hold fast to what is good. End quote. And Romans 16 .17 tells us to mark and avoid those who make a practice of teaching unsound or unbiblical doctrine.

Of course, I do actually agree with this commenter in that there can be a form of critiquing people that is unhelpful and unbiblical. This can involve things like nitpicking things that don't matter, taking things out of context, and that sort of activity.

And for those of us who are doing this kind of research or discernment-focused content, we ought to be very careful not to fall into those traps. Fair enough. But Sarah Jakes and her father T .D. Jakes have a well-documented track record of false teaching about the Bible.

They are a part of a movement, the Prosperity Gospel and Word of Faith movement to be exact, which has been heavily criticized by many Orthodox pastors for decades now. So to watch their sermons and critique them is not the same thing as having an overly critical spirit that causes unnecessary division in solid churches.

In other words, this commenter seems to be equating two things that are simply not the same. Being appropriately and biblically critical is good. But that's different from being overly and unbiblically critical, which they did not demonstrate we are.

We must be able to tell the difference using the standard of God's Word between these two things. In any case, we hope our video today clears things up. As always, let us know what you think in the comment section about all of this.

I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique. And let's pray for all the people mentioned in this video that by God's grace they would hold to the truth of God's Word.

Closing Encouragement, Supporter Thanks, and Sign-Off

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Thank you, and God bless.