The videos in this post are from the YouTube site, Pastor Michael Grant, (PMG); Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@Pastor_Grant/videos
At his YouTube site, PMG titled the first video below: Steven Furtick revives little gods doctrine taught by Kenneth Copeland and Paul Crouch of TBN
I changed PMG’s title to make it part two of my mini-series on Biblical va UN-biblical preaching.
My last post illustrated biblical preaching which glorifies God and edifies the sheep of God; it used a video of a Voddie Baucham sermon: the World, the Flesh and the Devil.
The videos below, sermons by Steven Furtick, illustrate preaching that blasphemes God and leads God’s sheep far astray: onto the broad way and onto destruction.
[The second video sermon by Steven Furtick is below sermon points and article links concerning the first Furtick video.]
This two-part mini-series came out of a question a reader asked me regarding the nature of biblical preaching and its opposite.
Sermon Highlights for above video:
Sermon HIGHLIGHTS [bracketed statements; emboldening and underscoring are mine[:
- Pastor Michael Grant (PMG) seemingly created this video to illustrate an article from Protestia which he therein referred to several times
- Steven Furtick (SF) stated ‘whatever God is, you are too’
- The words of SF equate to the heretical ‘little gods’ doctrine taught by Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and such heretical teachers [in this blog, see, CATEGORIES: Prosperity Preachers for more]
- SF is making the little god’s doctrine ‘cool’ for this generation
- PMG read the following points from the Protestia article:
- SF is a mega-church pastor, in a former Southern Baptist Conference Church
- SF’s church of 25 thousand consists of 17 campus sites
- PMG – multiple campus sites is NOT a good thing
- SF is known as a NARCIGETIC PREACHER: one who reads his own ideas into the Bible text, then makes Bible stories about himself; or about one of his congregants
- Exegesis is the process of reading and interpreting scripture as God intended it to be understood and explaining that to God’s people
- Eisegesis is a process by which a pastor or lay person reads his own ideas into the text
- PMG noted that the narcigesis of SF amounts to ‘ear tickling’
- [That is a reference to the apostle Paul’s critique of those who do not want sound doctrine but want to hear things that fit with their own desires… see comments after bulleted points from Got Questions article if you want a more thorough explanation]
- In the Protestia article, they noted that SF co-opted all of God’s attributes to himself
- SF closes his ears to his critics, calling them ‘haters’
- Clip of 2019 sermon wherein SF called himself ‘the great I AM’ as God described Himself in Exodus 3, to Moses
- SF and word of faith preachers who subscribe to the little gods doctrine, believe they are like God and can do what He did, call things into existence
- Pentecostalism prosperity preachers; new agers; word of faith preachers, proponents of the law of attraction…, believe if one just believes hard enough, then he can speak things into existence
- People buy into the false preaching of the above teachers, not realizing that these counterfeit teachers are the ones who started the scam, that is why they have mansions and jet planes
- Poor people apparently do not realize that they are being scammed and that they will not be getting wealthy [unless they start their own religious scamming like their teachers]
- TBN clip of Kenneth Copeland and Paul Crouse and their wives proclaiming the little gods doctrine
- PMG CONCLUDED by emphasizing the DANGER of the message that these counterfeit preachers proclaim whose chief goal is to enrich themselves
- Why is their message dangerous?
- They do not open the Bible and preach the message of scripture that came from God; they do not preach the whole counsel of God
- Their aim is apparently to get rich while they pretend to guide you into godliness – they actually make you more worldly…
- AVIOD SUCH ‘PASTORS’ [end PMG words]
- [Fake pastors; counterfeit pastors; lying shepherds, as in John 10:8 and Ezekiel 34 – who fleece the God’s sheep and enrich themselves]
- Ezekiel 34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been shepherding themselves! Should not the shepherds shepherd the flock?
- 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
- [Read 2 Thessalonians 2 for a different warning about not receiving and loving God’s truth; that certainly is done by those who want their ears tickled]
- From an article by Got Questions the following important terms are explained: exegesis, eisegesis and narcigesis
- Narcigesis is a word of fairly recent coinage that has not yet found its way into dictionaries. When people use the word, they are referring to a process of interpreting Scripture in a highly personal, even selfish way.
- Narcigesis is a portmanteau word, combining the words narcissism and eisegesis
- Narcissism is “excessive interest in or admiration of oneself,”
- Eisegesis is “interpretation of a text by reading into it one’s own ideas.”
- Eisegesis is the opposite of exegesis,
- Exegesis, is the “critical explanation or interpretation of a text”
- So, narcigesis is “the explanation of the Bible in a way that shows excessive interest in oneself and prioritizes one’s own ideas”
- Example of the narcigesis of SF: regarding the Bible story of David and Goliath, SF would make the story to be about him being David; or one of his church members being David
- Exegisis: one who exegetes the scripture text would convey to his congregation that, at least, that David is a ‘biblical type’ of Christ – meaning, a picture of Christ
- Eisegesis: one using eisegesis would give his opinion about the text without doing the work of learning what the Bible actually means
- [Explained directly after bulleted points by another short Got Questions article]
TERM EXPLANATIONS AND LINKS TO ARTICLES:
Typology is a special kind of symbolism. (A symbol is something that represents something else.) We can define a type as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in Scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament that foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. For example, the flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6—7) is used as a type of baptism in 1 Peter 3:20–21. The word for “type” that Peter uses is figure.
When we say that someone is a type of Christ, we are saying that a person in the Old Testament behaves in a way that corresponds to Jesus’ character or actions in the New Testament. When we say that something is “typical” of Christ, we are saying that an object or event in the Old Testament can be viewed as representative of some quality of Jesus.
Eisegesis: is the interpretation of a passage based on a subjective, non-analytical reading. The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.
Ear tickling / itching ears: The apostle Paul wrote a warning for the church: “The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The Greek word translated “itching” literally means “to itch, rub, scratch, or tickle.” To want one’s ears “tickled” is to desire massages rather than messages—sermons that charm rather than challenge, entertain rather than edify, and please rather than preach. The people Paul warns about will have, as one commentator put it, “ears which have to be continually titillated with novelties.”
***Link to Got Questions article about 2 Timothy 4:3, itching ears: https://www.gotquestions.org/itching-ears.html
***Link to Got Questions article: What is Biblical Typology? https://www.gotquestions.org/typology-Biblical.html
***Link to Got Questions article, What is narcigesis? https://www.gotquestions.org/narcigesis.html
***Link to Got Questions article, What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis? https://www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html
Pastor Michael’s following sermon on Furtick goes deeper, for those who would know more such that they might learn greater discernment:
Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@Pastor_Grant/videos
The following narrative and links accompanied the first sermon in this post at the YouTube site, Pastor Michael Grant:
In a recent sermon Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church taught his congregation that “whatever God is, you are too”.
Article Link: https://protestia.com/2024/02/14/here…
This teaching is meant to exalt man while pulling God down to our level. This statement by Furtick comes off the heels of the last scandal where the megachurch pastor claimed to be “God Almighty”. How can he make such a claim? This is a heretical teaching found within a segment of Charismatic / Pentecostal Christianity known as the “Word Faith” or “Word of Faith” movement. It’s also called “Name it and claim it” and it is a key Tenet of the “Prosperity Gospel” as taught by TD Jakes, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and others.
The idea is that we are “little gods” therefore whatever God can do, you can do, IF you just have enough faith. It also usually includes you proving you have faith by donating “seed money” to the televangelist. For more click on my video titled “What did Jesus Mean When He said “ye are gods”? – • What Did Jesus Mean When He Said “Ye …
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