WWUTT 265 Q&A Code Orange Revival?

Show Rebrand and Opening Banter

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. This is this is the old music bed. What what is this? No, we've changed all of this. This is All right. Fine. This is when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text committed to teaching sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Find all of our videos at our website WWTT .com. Now, here's the guy who can't make up his mind pastor Gabe.

Yes, I know. I I can't make up my mind. We tried the East from West thing. I couldn't even last two weeks on it. And here we are changing everything back to when we understand the text. I just didn't like it when it comes down to it.

That was the reason I didn't like it. It wasn't you it was me. And if I'm gonna be doing this program, I've got to like it and I just didn't like East from West. I don't really know why I mean we Tested on it.

I liked what it was that we turned it into and it sounded good. And that's what the program was gonna be from the very beginning when we started the podcast. It was gonna be East from West. That was the music bed.

It was gonna have songs at the end. It was gonna be that long and so for some reason I got it in my mind that the podcast and the video ministry had to be two different things and. And ended what ended up happening is subliminally.

I felt like I was doing more work. Even though it was the same work that I was doing before. I don't know I don't know what it was, but I I realize now if it ain't broke don't fix it. So we're going back to when we understand the text and I'm sorry for messing up everybody's iPhones because I'm sure.

Changing the name again. Your downloader is now downloading all 260 some-odd episodes. This program that we've done. Because I've changed the name twice in two weeks. I am so sorry and I really hope that I haven't lost any listeners over this.

I don't really know why I felt like these had to be two different things. It works for wretched. Wretched is is the TV program and it's the radio program and they don't have a problem calling both things wretched but I thought the podcast had to be one thing and the video ministry had to be something else and No, it's it's when we understand the text and as long as I can help it.

I won't change the name again. But clearly I couldn't help it the first time so I don't know. I'm sorry for being so indecisive. I'm really not this. This wishy-washy about anything else offline just for whatever reason I can't seem to settle something settle for something online and And just stick with it.

But here we are. This is this is when we understand the text and this being our Friday edition of the episode. We're gonna be responding to some questions from some listeners. But before I do that, I actually want to talk about code orange revival.

Critique of Code Orange Revival and Stephen Furtick

The the quote-unquote revival that's going on at Elevation Church in North Carolina. Stephen Furtick's Church and I've talked about him on the program before played some clips from Furtick earlier this year.

To give warning to those who have been drawn in by Furtick that the man is a false teacher. Quite seriously, that's that's the way that Furtick should be understood as being a false teacher and these things that are going on at code Revival this week, although it's it's been all over Twitter and all over Facebook and all over social media at large people saying man I've loved code orange revival watching it online being there at the event it's it's really Terrible filling people with bad things.

I mean how in the world can I say that because it sounds like they have a lot of Fun. It's a lot of fun. They they say the name of Jesus Preach from the Bible and everybody's just having a good time. I mean just listen to this this duet that Stephen Furtick had with with Israel Houghton and then posted it on his Twitter page.

Just listen in here.

It's the sweet. That's my part. To do it again, so like in my range right there my sweet spot. Jesus Jesus. I mean that sounds lovely and people are laughing and having fun and they're singing about the name of Jesus.

What could possibly be wrong with that? Because all of what you just heard no matter how fun it sounded and you may have even laughed at the clip I did. I thought it was entertaining. But everything that you just heard there Was blasphemy and.

And please hear me that I'm not trying to come into this saying that I know better than somebody else and I'm holier-than-thou. So you need to listen to me. I am NOT. I am a filthy wretched sinner. Desperately in need of the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

But I love Christ. Also, the Holy Spirit has put it into my heart to love the Lord my God with all my heart soul mind and strength. And so I hate it as God does when his name is misused. I hate it. And I love you enough to tell you to have nothing to do with this kind of usage of the name of God.

How can I possibly say that what was going on right there between Stephen Furtick and Israel? Houghton was vanity. It was taking the Lord's name in vain breaking of the of the third commandment. How can I say that?

Because I've been listening to the preaching and What I hear there at code orange revival is vanity. It is self-absorbed. Here it here is how the Bible is all about you preaching. I listened to almost all of Joyce Meyer's sermon, which she delivered there at Code orange revival just a couple of nights ago.

And my goodness. It was just all about her me me me. I I I here's what? I've done. Here's what I've accomplished. Here's what what I did and Man, I can't even remember a single verse. She quoted she did quote a couple of verses but I can't remember any of them because it was just all about her the whole thing was all about her and It's just one vain sermon after another.

Now there was a sermon that was preached at code orange revival in 2012. This was almost five years ago because this would have been at the beginning of 2012 not at the end. Which is when they do the court code orange revival now but there was a kind of a thing going on between Stephen Furtick and Matt Chandler of the village church in Dallas, Texas and.

And I had I had been watching this Furtick and Chandler had kind of had a squabble with one another. In the elephant room sessions for any of you been, you know. Kind of following evangelicalism online for the last five or six years and you know what the elephant room sessions are.

Anyway, there was a little kind of a back-and-forth that Chandler and Furtick had and it kind of you know. Made some waves in certain evangelical circles online. And so I guess Furtick wanted to show that no, you know Chandler and I were buds.

You know, I can I can show how though we have two different approaches to the text I can welcome him at my revival. And so he brought Chandler in to the code orange revival to preach and Chandler preached a scathing sermon just an absolutely scathing sermon against everything that Elevation Church stands for in the way that they approach Teaching the Bible as the Bible being all about you.

The sermon that Chandler preached is called God is for God. You can find it online and it's beautiful. It is one of the most impacting sermons that I have ever heard in my life for me I'm talking about like like how this sermon just reached into my heart and just just twisted me up.

This was the same year that I was gonna take over as senior pastor at the church that I was in. And so it really caused me to evaluate Myself and my approach to the text to make sure I wasn't reading myself into the scriptures.

But but with the Bible giving all the glory to God and directing all the hearers to God. With the text that was what the sermon really did for me. There's been several like hugely impacting sermons for me in my life one of these days I'm gonna make a list and kind of direct people to hey You need to listen to this sermon that one from Chandler is one of them.

Of course the awesome youth message That Paul Washer is known for that was another one. There was a sermon that John MacArthur did on the wrath of God. That was another one. Vodie Bockham did a sermon on the Fifth Commandment.

That was like one of the most life-changing sermons for me and I was neither married nor a parent at the time. So anyway but these are some of the Hugely impacting sermons that I've I've experienced over the course of my life and that one from Matt Chandler God is for God is one of them now somebody online took the liberty of combining elements of John Gray who was one of the speakers at the Code Orange revival just a few nights ago and Combined John Gray sermon with Matt Chandler sermon at Code Orange revival back in 2012 and You can hear that.

Not only is there a stark contrast, but very clearly Stephen Furtick and Elevation Church learned nothing from what Chandler spoke There over four years ago, and I hope though that what Chandler said really did mess somebody up and They turned from that church and their wicked approach to teaching the text and realized what Elevation Church is all about is vanity and they got out of there and Instead found a solid gospel teaching Christ centered church and with those brothers and sisters.

They are growing in the knowledge of God giving him all the glory for all the great things that he does. Not for all the great things that we are. Okay. So anyway, I want to play that. This is this is a video.

And you're gonna be hearing the audio from that video that contrasts John Gray with Matt Chandler. Here you go.

John Gray’s Self-Exalting Sermon Versus Matt Chandler on David and the Bible

So God allowed Saul to go first because in order for David to become David he needed Saul. Stop despising Saul. You need Saul. You need people to hate on you. You need the people to tear you up. You need people to attack.

It's the necessary ingredient to keep you humble and in the presence of God and it keeps you in the hands of the master. Stop hating Saul. Thank God for Saul because if you got a Saul that makes you.

I'm gonna be straight. I love you enough to be straight. You're not David. The brothers hated on him anoint him.

Well. Most high. Shouldn't shouldn't he change first? No anointing while he's dirty. Some of y 'all missed that you think God is waiting for you to get clean to anoint you. He's gonna show his love that he's gonna pour oil in the middle of you.

In the middle of your situation. He's gonna say I know what you're struggling with. I know what you're going through.

I still anointed you the Bible's not about you.

Overlooked undervalued marginalized hidden in a field and. As he was walking from the field to the house He had no clue that it was the last time He would walk without being anointed. King. You walked to them from the parking lot to the church.

Had no clue heaven was watching you walk.

What you see in the Bible is this is from Genesis to Revelation the the story of the Bible that God for the glory of his name is Reconciling and reclaiming all things to himself. So this is what you've got to get.

I want to try to help you here with something that's pretty big pretty epic. All right, so look right at me. The Bible's not about you. What you'll do is you'll keep now. Let me here's what you you'll keep.

Infusing yourself into the stories of the Bible like you're the hero. And this happens all the time. All right, so I mean, I want to be straight. I love you enough to be straight. You're not David. All right, your trouble in life is not Goliath.

And if that's true, you're in a lot of trouble bro, cuz you miss. Now you fling your stones and you miss and Goliath still there and now what. Well, I had five you'll miss all five. So if you view the scriptures through that lens that really all the superheroes in the Bible are actually you.

Then man, you put a weight on your shoulders that listen to me. You will not be able to bear Jesus David. Jesus is the greater David. Jesus is the greater Moses. Jesus is the greater Abraham. It's a whole point in the book of Hebrews The Jesus is the greater than so so if you want to do this, I mean you want to dig in.

So that means Jesus is gonna be David. Goliath is going to be in this all over saving David's a historical figure. I um, Jesus is gonna be David in this shadow. Goliath is gonna be sin and death. Who's that make you?

And it doesn't make you the Israelites in the corner he's gonna kill all of us that's exactly who you are. All right. So let's make sure we're playing the right part in the story.

Response to the Six-Day Creation Question

So there you go the contrast between John Gray who preached at code orange revival a few nights ago and Matt Chandler who preached over four years ago. And if you were paying attention at the time that Chandler preached that sermon then you'll know this whenever a Code orange revival is going on.

They will feature all of the speakers in the live feed as they are preaching and then if there are any sermons that you missed. You can find them listed in the archive. Well Chandler sermon was not in the archive and anytime somebody tried to upload Chandler sermon to YouTube It would get removed for copyright reasons.

I think eventually some people were probably gave Elevation Church enough of a hard time that they allowed the sermon to be uploaded. They couldn't take away my copy though. I had already stripped the audio from the video and had burned it onto a CD at the time.

All of this was going on. I had visited my folks down in southwest Kansas and then I was driving back to Junction City. Which was a trip of five hours and I listened to that sermon on CD five times. Over the course of that trip.

That's how much it was. It was eating me up inside. It was it was clearly eating up Furtick as well. His conscience was was feeling he was he was struggling with his conscience as Chandler was preaching.

Because if you watch on the video toward the end when Chandler is kind of wrapping things up and he starts into his prayer Furtick is pacing back and forth behind him. And just very uneasy with what it was that Chandler just preached and we would come to find out why Furtick was so uneasy About it because when he preached the final sermon at the end of the revival his message was about David and Goliath and how you're David and Goliath is your problems.

But Clearly didn't learn anything because that's that's Furtick's shtick how the Bible is all about you reading himself into the pages reading you into the pages. You're David Goliath your problems. You're the hero.

That's the way that Furtick preaches. You know if I could ever talk to Furtick if there was ever an opportunity where I would have a chance to have an interview. With Furtick face to face I can tell you what I would ask him.

I would say what was going through your mind when Matt Chandler was preaching that sermon at Code Orange revival back in 2012. I really want to know. I want to know what was going on in his mind. But Furtick is a vain preacher.

Vanity that is what he teaches and if you just have a basic understanding a basic reading of first and second Timothy. You would see that the instructions that Paul gives to Timothy are Exactly contrary to everything that Furtick does when he preaches.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 4 it says I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and The dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word Be ready in season and out of season reprove Rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not Endure sound teaching but having itching ears.

They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as. For you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry and What Furtick does with the pulpit at?

Elevation Church as he has turned it into a lectern for myths. Speculations, that's all that he is Preaching up there vanity filling people up with things that they want to hear about they have itching ears.

And so they accumulate for themselves Preachers to suit their own passions. That's why a person likes a preacher like John Gray. That's why they like Joyce Meyer though. What she preaches is heresy that's why they like Stephen Furtick because what those preachers are preaching are the things that they like and they Accumulate for themselves the teachers to suit their own passions.

Those teachers are a judgment against those people who are out to gratify the flesh rather than glorify God. That's how I know. When Stephen Furtick and Israel Houghton are up there singing about the name of Jesus, it's blasphemy.

It's vanity because they're not really giving glory to God. It's all about the glory to themselves. Israel Houghton Was was the worship leader at Joel Esteen's Church? He was released from there when he got a divorce from his wife of 20 years just last month.

He got engaged to another woman. He's still in adultery. Jesus said if a person divorces his wife and and Israel Houghton admitted that he cheated on his wife. If a person divorces his wife and marries another he commits adultery and That's what's happening with Israel Houghton so so that little fun and games thing there that it sounded like is so Happy-go-lucky at code orange revival is just nothing but blasphemy.

It aches my heart. I hurt to hear it and I wish that they would repent. I pray for their repentance because clearly Furtick. I mean clearly people love him. So I wish that he would love God and love his word and teach that To the people who would listen to him.

He's gonna lose a lot of people. It would happen. Elevation Church would shrink if Furtick were to go to that. But he would be preaching the truth and the gospel and he is held accountable only to God.

He's not trying to please men. As Paul talks about at the beginning of Galatians when he's talking with the Galatians am I out to please men or am I Responsible to the Lord our God and that's that's who it is that I am held accountable to.

It's not to try to entertain people. It's not try to make everybody happy. It's to glorify God with the preaching of his word. Like I said, I am a filthy sinner and I am in desperate need of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is by his grace that I can read his word and understand it. And so I teach it to people so that they can understand it and glorify God also. All right. I said that I was gonna take some questions here.

Six-Day Creation, Genesis 1, and Uniformitarianism

So let's do that the first question actually has to do with our Video on the six-day creation. So as I'm shifting gears here to responding to questions. Let's go ahead and play that video first. Here's the what video on the six-day creation.

Does Genesis 1 teach that God created the universe in six literal days? Yes. It's the only way to read Genesis after the first day of creation. Genesis 1 5 says and there was evening and there was morning the first day.

Same goes for the second day in the third and so on pretty straightforward. Some have argued that Genesis 1 is not about how God created but that he created but Genesis tells us how also God said let there be and there was speaking all things into existence and it was good at the end of six days.

He rested from his creation if all things came to be through natural processes. There's no end to creation, but the creation story has a definite beginning and conclusion over six days. This is the only understanding congruent with the rest of Scripture.

Romans 5 12 says that death came into the world because of sin. Before Adam sin, there was no death destruction or decay consequences of sin. They could not have been going on for millions of years before Adam.

Well, then science and the Bible don't agree because science unquestionably says that the earth is billions of years old. Yeah, no, it doesn't. Science doesn't say anything scientists do believing in uniformitarianism that the processes we observe today are exactly as they always Have been.

The Bible says otherwise. For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens that existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by The Word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

Hebrews 11 3 says by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are Visible when we understand the text. This question comes from Edward.

He says dear watch. This is my second time writing it to the ministry and I would like to say again that I am thankful to God for your Ministry, it has been a blessing to me and to others. Thank you again.

Thank you again, Edward. I have a particular set of questions regarding the video on the six-day creation. Well more like criticisms than questions. This is a topic that has interested me for almost my entire life and still fascinates me.

Which is one reason why I'm writing. I'll try to express myself as best as I can. So here goes it is mentioned in the video that the only way to understand Genesis 1 is literally. I'm not so sure. Reading this chapter the Sun and Moon are not created until the fourth day and a day is based on the earth.

Making one full rotation, which is 24 hours since light was used to determine a day in Genesis. Was it still 24 hours before there was no Sun? It's true that science doesn't and cannot say anything. However, I think you know what is meant when they say that which is that according to scientific findings those findings suggest that the earth Is such in such an age.

It's true that it is a big assumption to say that the same Processes are the same now and have not changed. However, isn't it true that processes can and do change as far as human experience goes? They haven't really changed.

The real question is have they changed furthermore? I do not see the Bible as a guide to how the natural world works. But rather as one that points me to Jesus Christ and thus leads me to God. I believe in that assessment.

But I could be wrong. One last criticism at the end of the video the focus appears to drift from the topic of a literal six-day creation to a discussion about creation versus non-creation. It would be interesting to know more specific details about whether or not to understand Genesis 1 literally.

The 90-second video cannot do justice to the topic and it is a controversial one. I am NOT trying to subvert the authority of Scripture, but rather understand it. Thank you for your time and may God continue to use your ministry for his glory.

Edward well Edward, I gotta say I really appreciate your email. And I think that you are approaching this matter civilly and I don't have any reason to say of you that I think that you are trying to Bend God's will to or I'm sorry bid God's Word to your will rather than submitting to God's will.

I think that you truly want to understand the scripture for what it says. But let me say this to you that your understanding of reading Genesis 1 From a an evolutionary standpoint of being a process of time that took millions and millions of years.

You only read it that way because of a cultural assumption. That's the only reason why. Because of Darwinism and how prevalent that's become in our culture. This was not a question 150 to 200 years ago until Darwinism came along in the history of the church.

You do not see these assumptions being made of God having created everything over a period of millions and millions of years. Now there are some people that try to say that Augustine Believed in an old earth creationism.

That is a myth. That is not true. He wrote several commentaries on the book of Genesis and in no way. Could you come away from any one of those commentaries believing that God had created all things over an extended period of time?

It's clear there that not only does Augustine believe in the six literal day creation. But he also believes that the genealogies that are mentioned in those first few books in Genesis were literal Chronologies when those books say that so-and-so lived for however many hundreds of years.

They really truly lived for that long. So anyway, let me come back to a couple of questions the way that you ask them here in your letter. You say that reading this chapter reading Genesis 1 The Sun and Moon are not created until the fourth day and a day is based on the earth making one full rotation.

Which is 24 hours one full turn. That's a 24-hour day since light was used to determine a day in Genesis. Was it still 24 hours before there was no Sun? Well Edward, you actually answered your own question.

You said if the earth turns one time, that's 24 hours. So then if light was used to determine a day in Genesis, well, does the earth need light to turn? So if it's made one full turn. That's 24 hours, but furthermore the Sun and the moon do not determine the length of a day.

God determines the length of a day and he had already decided how long a day was going to be. Before he gave us the Sun and the moon in the stars so that we would know how long a day was read about it in Genesis chapter 1 beginning in verse 14 and God said let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.

So God knew how long the length of a day was but when it came to Mankind being able to understand the length of a day We have the Sun and the moon in the stars to help us be able to do that. The length of a day was already established before The creation of the lights in the heavens the sources of those lights in the heavens.

Okay, another question that that you ask here you challenged my claim about uniformitarianism. And you said the real question is have they changed? Well, the video answers that have have processes changed from the beginning of time.

The video does answer that because Peter says this in 2nd Peter chapter 3 the heavens existed long ago. And the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed Was deluged with water and perished but by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire Being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The earth was something else entirely before the flood and now it's something else after the flood and when you read Genesis You see that because you saw people living for hundreds of years then after the flood.

They're not living for nearly as long and progressively as things continued they were living for less and less amounts of time and so obviously something had happened as though as the world was continuing to be submitted to Futility that mankind was not allowed to live as long and that was that was part of the progression of the curse and so there is very clearly a Difference in the world as it existed prior to the flood and the way that it existed after the flood but uniform Atarianism according to scientists is that the processes that we can measure now are exactly the processes that were going on you know, however many thousands of years ago or millions of years ago, of course in their case and The Bible actually says the opposite.

One last point that I want to make here is there's no reason to Have to believe that the earth is millions of years old or that the universe is billions of years old. You don't have to believe that. There's no reason to do you remember the debate that took place between Ken Ham and Bill Nye a few years ago at the Creation Museum?

Okay, the topic of the debate was is creation a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific era and Ken Ham won that debate in his first speech. Because he showed that a scientist who believes in a young earth creation model can in fact thrive in the scientific community showing people who have invented things like the laser or the cat scan and these guys have Been young earth creationists and yet have made huge contributions in the in the realm of science.

You don't have to believe that the earth is millions or billions of years old. Scripture doesn't say it and gives no allusion at all to the earth being anything older than a few thousand years old. God has that kind of power.

He spoke all things into existence and they came to be there's an immediacy in the Genesis story when When you read it God said it and it was and he saw that it was good and it was evening and morning the first Day, then you get to the second day God said it and it was and he looks at it and it was good and there was evening and there was morning the second Day on and on it goes throughout the creation story.

There is no indication there whatsoever. Nor is there any indication in anywhere else in the scriptures that the entire? Universe came to be in any other way, but the six-day creation model. Edward I continue to challenge you to explore those things and view the scriptures in In and understand Genesis 1 in light of what the rest of the scriptures say not what Darwinism or Naturalism says because all of these naturalism processes all of these dates that they come up with in Darwinian or naturalistic Evolution, all of these things are presupposed.

They're not starting from a blank slate and then okay now we're gonna measure it. Oh looks like this rock is a hundred million years old. There was something presupposed that went into that testing before they came up with that number.

Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and So death spread to all men because all sinned. So death came into the picture when Adam and Eve sinned there could not have been Millions and millions of years of processes going on before Adam and Eve's sin with death and decay and all this other kind of thing.

Death didn't come about until sin sin in the Garden of Eden. So again, the only viewpoint that you can take on Genesis 1 that will agree with the rest of Scripture is the literal Six-day creation. Thank you again Edward for your email.

That's all the time I've got. I had a couple of other questions lined up, but I'm already over half an hour here. So if you would like to submit any questions to this broadcast. The address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.

Thank you for putting up with me. Thank you for letting me change the name yet again and still coming back and receiving the Bible teaching that we offer here I will be back with when we understand the text god-willing.

It's still what it'll be called on Monday as we continue our study of the book of James. This is this is gonna be my new coke or my crystal Pepsi. Now I've had East from West. We've gone back to when we understand the text.

Thank you so much.

Closing Exhortation and Church Attendance

This is when we understand the text with pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with the church family.

Find a good gospel teaching Christ Center Church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more Bible study. When we understand the text.