Jesse Duplantis and Ken Copeland Explicitly Deny the Gospel - and That's Not Even the Worst Thing!

Justin Peters

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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 this podcast. The title on the thumbnail is not hyperbole, in the least.

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I'm going to show you a video clip of Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland. This was recorded two years ago.

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This was their victory -thon that Kenneth Copeland was holding. That is their annual telethon that they do to raise money for Kenneth Copeland Ministries.

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Never mind the fact that Kenneth Copeland boasts about being a billionaire. He's the wealthiest preacher in the entire country, probably the wealthiest in the

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Northern Hemisphere. But nonetheless, they've got to raise some money, right?

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So they do this every year, and they bring in some of the who's who in the WordFaith movement to shill for them.

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One of whom is Jesse Duplantis. So this is a short clip, but Jesse Duplantis is talking about Zacchaeus from Luke 19.

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You remember Zacchaeus, of course. Wee little man, wee little man was he. Well, watch this from Jesse Duplantis, and also listen carefully to the source of the information that Jesse Duplantis is about to convey to us.

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Watch. You know, I was preaching this the other day, that opposites attract, but so do outcasts attract.

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Zacchaeus was an outcast, but so was Jesus on the other spectrum, an outcast. Now think about that.

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When he saw that man, Zac, I can just call him Zac, he saw something in Zacchaeus that no one else did.

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You know what he saw? Most people believe in original sin. Some people believe in original sin. He believed in original goodness.

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I said to the Lord, I believe in original goodness. I could see the good in that man. Well, he says that most people believe in original sin.

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Well, yeah, Jesse, most people do, at least professing Christians, true Christians do, because that is exactly what the

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Bible teaches, original sin. Dear friends, what you just heard there is a heresy known as Pelagianism.

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Pelagianism is named after Pelagius. He was a monk back in the late 300s, early 400s,

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British or Celtic. We don't know a lot about the man as far as his biographical sketch goes.

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But Pelagius held that man, mankind, when a person is born, that person is born with a clean slate.

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He is not born with a sin nature. His nature is not inclined towards sin in any way.

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He rejects that we inherited a sin nature from Adam. And this means that a person is completely free to choose good or bad.

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And just by making good choices, a person can carry this out to its logical conclusion, earn his or her way into heaven.

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So our natures are not bent towards sin, not inclined towards sin. We are born absolutely neutral with a clean slate, and we can simply choose good, and we can save ourselves.

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Of course, this is objective heresy. The Bible clearly teaches that we are born with a sin nature.

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There's a number of passages that we could look at. We'll look at just a few of them. But I want to bring your attention first to Romans chapter 5.

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Romans chapter 5 verse 10 says this, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

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So the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, describes us before our conversion, before our reconciliation to God as enemies of God.

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Dear friends, if you're an enemy of God, that is far from being neutral, right?

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No, we are enemies of God, hostile to God. Let's look at a few more verses in Romans chapter 5.

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In fact, verse 12 is the go -to verse for the biblical doctrine of original sin.

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Let's look at Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

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Dear friends, that is not unclear, right? Pelagianism holds that man did not inherit a sin nature from Adam.

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And yet, Paul, writing here in Romans 5, could not be more clear. He says, just as through one man,

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Adam, sin entered the world. That's not unclear. All of us inherited a sin nature from Adam.

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Adam is our federal head in that, in that we are all sinners. Once Adam and Eve fell, then sin spread like a virus all throughout all of humanity in each and every one of us.

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When we are born, we are born as sinners. Let's look at a few more verses in Romans chapter 5.

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In fact, here's a smattering of verses, verses 15 through 19. Look at the highlighted phrases here.

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For if by the transgression of the one, Adam, the many died, right?

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Verse 16, judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation.

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17, for if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one.

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18, through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. And verse 19, through the one man's disobedience, the many were appointed sinners.

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Friends, you don't have to be a Greek scholar to figure this out. The Bible very clearly teaches original sin.

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In fact, this is a bedrock doctrine of Christianity. If you remove original sin, you gut the entire gospel.

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You make the cross of Jesus Christ null and void. Absolutely meaningless.

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Let me bring your attention to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, the

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Apostle Paul says, What then? Are we better? Not at all. For we have already charged that both

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Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

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There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.

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There is none who does good, not even one. Their throat is an open tomb.

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With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. Does that sound like original goodness to you?

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No, it doesn't to me either. Dear friends, we are all born sinners.

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We are sinners by birth. We are sinners by nature. We inherit a sin nature from Adam, every single one of us.

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Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice.

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In fact, those of you who are parents, those of you who are grandparents, you know this.

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Your sweet little baby is not born morally neutral.

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Your baby is cute and precious as babies are. They are born with a sin nature.

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And it doesn't take very long before you see that sin nature cropping up, does it? No, in fact, all of us have seen these videos on YouTube of little toddlers getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

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And they are caught with eating chocolate or putting on makeup or whatever, and they're busted.

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But you ask them, did you do this? No, no, no. You don't have to teach kids to lie.

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It comes very naturally. Watch. Did you eat a cupcake?

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No. You didn't eat a cupcake? No, I was at home. You sure you didn't eat a cupcake? No. Hmm.

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I thought you maybe had a cupcake. No. No? No. Definitely not? No. Not like in the last couple minutes?

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No. No cupcake for Jack? No. Oh, okay. What'd you eat?

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Nothing. Nothing at all? No. Are you sure? No. Nothing at all.

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Oh, okay. It looks like you ate a donut to me. I did?

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I think so. No, I don't want it in my tummy, party.

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So you don't have to teach kids to lie, do you? It comes very naturally. Not only do you not have to teach them to lie, you don't have to teach them to blame someone else for their own mischief.

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Who was eating chocolate for breakfast? You or Noah? Noah. Noah was?

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Yeah. You weren't eating any chocolate? No. You didn't eat chocolate?

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No. Oh, just Noah? No. Are you sure you didn't have any chocolate?

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No. No, you didn't? No. What'd you eat? Nothing? Nothing.

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Nothing? Oh. How did the marker get on your face? Um... Who put it on your face?

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Daddy. Daddy put it on your face? Yeah, Daddy. And who put the toothpaste on your face?

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Daddy. Well, Daddy did that too. I think it was you. No, it was Daddy.

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Noel, who drew on Mommy's mirror? I don't know. Was it you? No. Who was it?

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It was mine. It was mine. Batman did it? I think that might be my favorite.

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Batman did it. Watch one more clip. Watch this. And did you go in the room with it or he just ate it right there?

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He just ate it right there. But you didn't eat one? No. You sure?

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No. You see, that little girl, when she's confronted by her mom, she knows she's lying in her body language.

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You don't have to have a body language expert to come in and watch that. Did you see how she cowered down and she dropped her head, kind of trying to hide?

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She knew she was lying. She knew she was busted. She knew she was lying, and she tried to cover it up.

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That is a guilty conscience. Even at that age, children's consciences get to them.

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They know that they're lying. You don't have to teach them how to lie. It comes naturally.

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Why? Because we are born with a sin nature. And to deny this is to deny fundamental biblical doctrine on the nature of man and his need for redemption.

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So this is objective heresy that Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis here are teaching.

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In fact, this was such egregious heresy that some of the early church councils dealt with it and they condemned it, roundly so.

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It was condemned first by the Council of Carthage in 418, and then yet again just 13 years later by the

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Council of Ephesus in 431. So the early church recognized this as the objective heresy that it is.

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They recognized the danger of it, and they recognized that it completely undermines and guts the gospel itself.

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Pelagianism is a denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it.

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It is a denial of the gospel. Different scriptures are very clear.

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Left to ourselves, we are neither willing nor are we able to come to Christ on our own.

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Romans 8, verse 7 says, The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.

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Not even able. The sinner is neither willing nor is he able to come to Christ apart from the sovereign grace of God.

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In fact, I would submit to you that what Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland taught in this clip is even worse than Pelagianism.

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Because Pelagianism basically holds that we are born neutral, that we can choose to do good or bad.

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Jesse Duplantis takes it a step further than that, and he says we are born not even neutral.

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We're born good. We're born with original goodness.

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I think even Pelagius would say, whoa, Jesse, you're taking this a little too far. Pelagius would probably call him out as a heretic.

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This is just unreal. And as if that's not enough, the worst thing about this clip,

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I don't know if you caught it, so let me play it again. Listen carefully to what Duplantis says here. He believed in original goodness.

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I said, the Lord told me, I believe in original goodness. I could see the good in that man. Duplantis says

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Jesus believed in original goodness. He said, referring to Jesus, Jesse Duplantis is claiming that Jesus spoke to him and told him,

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I could see the good in that man. Liar. Jesse Duplantis, you are a liar and you know it.

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Jesus did not. He emphatically did not tell you that.

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Jesus is very clear. Read Mark chapter 10. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, why do you call me good?

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No one is good but God alone. That's what the real

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Jesus said, Jesse. Jesus was not correcting the rich young ruler, as we call him, by the way.

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He was not correcting him, he was leading him. Jesus was saying to this guy, okay, you call me good, but why?

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Do you call me good because you think I'm a good teacher that tells some good stories and does some good things?

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Or do you call me good because you understand that I am good because I am

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God? Jesus is affirming his deity. There is only one who is good and that is

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God. Jesse Duplantis, you are a liar.

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And Kenneth Copeland went along with every word of it. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.

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No, he didn't. So it's not just that they're teaching heresy and blaspheming the name of Christ, but that that very heresy, that very blasphemy that they teach, they actually ascribe to Jesus as the source.

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He is the source of this heresy and blasphemy. And some of the most blood -curdling blasphemies that have ever been uttered in the broad spectrum of evangelicalism have come from the lips of Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis, and they ascribe these blasphemies to Jesus.

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They claim that they get these heresies from Jesus. They compound their error, and they compound their sin, and they compound their condemnation.

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Dear friends, this is heresy. This is an explicit denial of the gospel.

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These men are not Christians. You cannot believe what they just taught and be saved.

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You can't do it. That's basic, basic, ground level, Gospel 101 stuff.

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This is first grade vacation Bible school stuff. Mr. Duplantis, Mr.

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Copeland, if you are watching this, by some chance, I will make an appeal to you yet again like I've done before.

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You're not Christians. Both of you are lost. Both of you are getting older, and hell awaits.

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Mr. Copeland, you're about to turn 87 years old, and you're not going to live to be 120 like you say you are.

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Time is short for both of you. You're headed to hell, but I don't want that for you.

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I want to be able to call you my brothers in Christ. I cannot do that now.

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If you will repent of your sin, turn from your sin, and trust the true

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Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ who is good because he is

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God, the Jesus who laid down his life as the God -man, one person with two natures, laid down his life, gave it willingly on the cross, and bore the full undiluted fury of God's wrath.

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Jesus bore that wrath on himself. He bore the sins of his people on the cross.

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This perfect person offered his perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God, died on the cross three days later, bodily raised from the dead, proving himself to be who he said he was,

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God in human flesh. You must repent of sin, turn from sin, and place your trust in him.

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Your works will not save you. Your works only condemn you. Come to Christ empty -handed.

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And if you come to Christ in a true godly sorrow over sin, not a worldly sorrow that leads to death, 2

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Corinthians 7, but a godly sorrow that leads to repentance unto salvation, where you grieve over your sin, you grieve over the millions of people that you have deceived with a false

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Jesus and a false gospel, when you grieve over the reproach that you have brought upon the name of Christ, when you grieve over the millions of people that you have exploited, the poor, the sick, the desperate, and the widows, for personal financial gain to fund your lavish lifestyles living in your 40 ,000 -square -foot parsonage,

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Mr. Duplantis. If you are broken over your sin, then come to Christ.

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He will save you. And if he does save you, you will want to shut your ministry down because you will realize that you are biblically unqualified and disqualified from being in the pulpit.

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You'll shut your ministry down, and you will sell everything that you have, everything the ministry has, down to the last light bulb, and you'll give that money to doctrinally sound ministries, doctrinally sound churches, and you will never again be behind the pulpit.

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You have brought too much reproach upon the name of Christ. You'll never again be behind the pulpit, but you will join a good, doctrinally sound church led by biblically qualified men, and you will sit in the pews in front of the pulpit, and you'll learn, and you'll be discipled, and you will be saved, and you will have heaven one day because you do not have it now.

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All right, dear ones, thank you very much for watching. Until our next time together, may the grace of our