Mike Todd: “People DO NOT Go To Hell For Sin!”

Fight For Truth

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

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As ever, please know this isn't a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique. In today's video, we're going to be talking about a sermon clip from Mike Todd, pastor of Transformation Church in Oklahoma.

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He is a huge following, especially on social media. You see, many young people look around these days, and they see so -called traditional pastors who teach the whole counsel of God's Word.

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They see older men of the Lord who use words like propitiation, or exegesis, or hermeneutics, and they just yawn.

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It's boring. It's almost academic. By contrast, they see teachers like Mike Todd who are entertaining and trendy.

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These teachers use colloquial words, trendy terms, and make everything a matter of cultural fads, all in the name of supposedly becoming all things to all men.

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It is this phenomenon that has drawn so many people, especially young people, to teachers like Mike Todd.

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I mean, think about it. Why listen to a solid Biblical sermon every week when you could instead listen to an entertainer clap and shout and get excited as he makes up short little quips that are easy for you to remember?

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It's important that you know that this is the context of the situation. And with that said, let us turn to the clip of Mike Todd.

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Watch this. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

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Not imputing, and that word means accounting, not accounting their sins or trespasses against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

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God didn't do it just for us. He did it for the entire world.

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But pastor, everybody's not going to heaven, correct? Because God gave everybody choice.

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I'm about to drop some knowledge on you that everybody has to be able to receive.

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And this may be a shocking statement for some people, but people don't go to hell for sin. Jesus already paid for that.

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They go to hell for unbelief. And He died for the entire world.

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So people don't go to hell for sin. When Jesus took sin into His account, they go to hell because they don't believe

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He did it for them. Now, obviously, the most notable statement here, and the topic of today's video, is that quote, people don't go to hell for sin.

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Christ already paid for that. They go to hell for unbelief, end quote. Now, some have claimed that Mike Todd is teaching the doctrine of universalism, or the idea that everyone will be saved regardless of their belief in Christ or not.

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But Mike makes it clear that he's not teaching this. So I would not say that he's teaching universalism, but I would say that Mike is teaching a set of doctrines that are more logically consistent with universalism than anything else.

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You see, if universalism was a house, this clip would be the welcome mat. It's outside the structure itself, but still dangerously close to it, beckoning unsuspecting passersby to wipe their feet off and enter.

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And Mike's teaching here rests really on the foundation of one passage, or at least just a few.

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2 Corinthians 5 .19, it says this, quote, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation, end quote.

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So Mike's point in the sermon is this, that Jesus has already taken the sin of the entire world, and therefore the world's account has been rid of sin permanently.

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If you look at the whiteboard behind him that he uses as an example, you will see this plainly.

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And the conclusion of Mike Todd is that the world has no sin in their moral bank account, so to speak, even if they do not believe in Jesus.

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But this is a misunderstanding of the text, and a particularly dangerous one. The passage does indeed say that Christ, quote, was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

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And on the surface, this seems to agree with Mike's point, the one about the world's sins being taken away from them.

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So how do we understand all of this? Well, the very next verse, verse 20, provides some context, as it says, quote,

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Therefore we are ambassadors of Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God, end quote.

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This presents a problem for Mike Todd, and he attempts to deal with it here. According to Mike, verse 19 says that the world has no more trespasses attributed to them at all.

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They are now, in effect, sinless. Yet in verse 20, Paul then says that we must be ambassadors of Christ, imploring others to be reconciled to God.

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So these people have no sin, on the one hand, according to Mike Todd. Yet, there is still some sort of need for reconciliation, one that is urgent, so that we need to tell people these things as ambassadors of Christ.

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This is a serious contradiction, and Mike deals with it by saying, yes, the world is sinless now, but they are not yet righteous.

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They're sort of morally neutral. The righteousness of Christ can only be given by faith.

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Therefore, everyone has their sin removed already, but they do not have righteousness imputed to them, because not everyone has faith.

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This is all based on a misunderstanding of the text, though, and it's important because this will lead to the false doctrine of universalism.

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First off, we must recognize that 2 Corinthians 5, 17, just before verse 19, begins saying, quote, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, end quote.

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You see, the benefits of removal of sin, of being a new creation before God, these are not given to the whole world, but only to those who are in Christ.

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And the rest of the passage should be read in a way that accords with that statement, as well as the many other statements in Scripture that affirm that view.

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Verse 15 also appears to prove Mike's point, so it's worth talking about. It says this, quote, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

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Does this passage mean that Christ died for every single person, and therefore every single person has also died with Christ?

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No. Romans 6, 8 adds clarity. It says, quote, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

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We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him, end quote.

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This clearly demonstrates that those who die with Christ are also raised with Christ and live with Him.

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They've been given eternal life. The passage literally says that those who have died with Christ, quote, will also live with Him.

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So the all in this passage cannot be referring to everyone in the world, since not everyone in the world will be raised with Christ.

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We know that. Even Mike Todd acknowledges it. But this flies in the face of his entire point here.

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He says that there are those who are sinless, who Christ died for, who have died with Him, in that sense, and yet many of these very same people will still be in hell because of their unbelief.

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But those who die with Christ will not be in hell, according to God's Word, for they will be raised with Christ and live forever with Him.

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We know that. That's Romans 6, 8, and we just read it. My point here is that there is no way to consistently use 2

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Corinthians 5, 19 or any other such passage to teach what Mike Todd is teaching. It simply can't be done.

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And more than this, there is an inherent contradiction in Mike's core statement. Remember he said this, quote, people don't go to hell for sin.

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They go to hell for unbelief. The problem here is that unbelief is, by very definition, a sin.

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In Romans 14, Paul is dealing with a controversy over which foods are permissible under the new covenant.

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And he says this in verse 23 of that chapter, quote, but whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.

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For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin, end quote. So it's really simple. Unbelief by its very definition cannot proceed from faith, and therefore, unbelief is sin.

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To say that the whole world is without sin but they still possess unbelief is a non -sequitur.

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It's a bit like saying we don't have any fruit in our house, but we do always have apples in our house. The statement makes no sense when you try to work it out.

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Unbelief is a type of sin just as apples are a type of fruit. So Mike Todd's teaching is not supported by the text of Scripture, and it's also not supported by logic or reason.

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But finally, perhaps the most confusing point of all is that Mike Todd suggests that people can be sentenced to an eternity in hell, separated from God forever, while they still remain sinless.

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He says that their account has no sin in it, because the sin of the whole world has been removed and accounted to Christ on the cross instead.

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If you believe what Mike Todd is preaching, though, and the conclusion of it, you will also have to believe the idea that there are people in hell who have no sin.

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This is absurd. In Matthew 5 .29, Jesus says this, So Jesus warns these people about sin, and then

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He says that it's better to avoid sin, even at great cost to yourself, than to be thrown into hell.

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But pause there. Because in Mike Todd's teaching, Christ has already taken away your sin, even if you don't believe in Him.

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So why would your sin be accounted to you in hell? Indeed, why would the concepts of sin and hell be related here at all, if those who are in hell have no sin?

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Shouldn't this passage instead say something like, it's better to abandon your unbelief than to keep your unbelief and be thrown into hell?

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Well, if Mike Todd's conception of these things was correct, that's precisely what the passage would say, or something like that.

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The fact that the passage says the opposite thing demonstrates that Mike Todd's teaching is at odds with biblical truth.

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It is unbiblical falsehood, then. And ladies and gentlemen, this is only one step away from universalism.

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There are people who will hear what Mike Todd says and say, well, if everyone's sins are forgiven, then why would anyone be in hell?

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If your sins are forgiven, then you wouldn't go to hell, and therefore you'd be in heaven. So Mike Todd's teaching, in other words, will lead people to the natural conclusion that everyone is saved and everyone is going to heaven.

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Because that follows logically and consistently from Mike's original statement here.

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And that is extremely dangerous. When we tell people that their sins are already taken away from them, without faith, it removes their need for the

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Gospel. For the Gospel is the good news of Christ overcoming our sin. So this sermon isn't just a small mistake.

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It is a direct threat to some of the most important tenets at the root of the Christian faith.

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As Romans 16 -17 tells us, we must mark and avoid Mike Todd as a false teacher.

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If you believe his false doctrine, you will be led astray. So please, flee from his false teaching.

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I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know this. I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position.

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I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. So let's pray for Mike Todd, and for those who follow him, that they would stop this false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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