An Analysis of T.D. Jakes

TD jakes who is TD jakes Bishop Thomas Dexter TD jakes was born in 1957 and he's a popular african-american preacher and evangelist who was the main pastor of The Potter's House Church in Dallas Texas which was founded in 1996 with a congregation of actually over 30,000 members he comes from a United Pentecostal or oneness Pentecostal background he has written over 30 books with many on the New York Times bestseller list he has been in numerous TV interviews and has been featured in times Forbes in essence magazines The Washington Post USA Today CNN Fox News and many more he also hosts conferences and events such as women that are loosed in manpower and mega fest which thousands of people have attended so it's a very influential individual he also has a weekly television broadcasts called the potter's house which is televised on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and various other networks among his many honors TD jakes is also ranked by the Church report as being among the 50 most influential Christians in America so in analyzing t Jakes I don't want to just mention the negative aspects of him I do want to show credit where credit is due I believe that Bishop Jake's is actually desiring to speak truth and he wants to reach out to people and I've heard a lot of positive things about people who have come to Christ actually through his teachings but even though there are positive aspects of him we still gonna have to look at some negative aspects of what he teaches so let's start with some good things at TD jakes has done interestingly his church has been involved in numerous community outreach events both locally internationally that's something definitely to be commended for locally to just name a few of his church's contributions the Potter house reaches out to AIDS victims their education and assistance and also has a large outreach to prison inmates internationally the potter's house launched the faith for Africa campaign which is a program to reach out to the physical and spiritual needs of people near Nairobi Kenya again this is just a small picture of the positive impact that Jake's has made through his church so while there are positive aspects there are some very serious problems with TD jakes teach and those are the issues that I needed address right now first of all TD jakes denies the Trinity Jake's unfortunately adopts an incorrect view of the nature of God at the Potter house's website under their statement of faith regarding God they state the following there is one God creator of all things infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three manifestations Father Son and Holy Spirit now pay attention to that word manifestation the key words here are three manifestations if Jake's believe in the Trinity he would use words like simultaneous Co eternal or co-equal in reference to the Father Son and Holy Spirit but instead TD jakes view on the nature of God is known as modalism which was an ancient heresy which teaches that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as three distinct persons rather God is sometimes the father he sometimes a son and he sometimes the Holy Spirit it's like a mask and an actor in a play he puts on the mask of the father he puts on the mask of the son puts on the mask of the Holy Spirit in contrast to Jakes is incorrect view of the Trinity Carm defines the Trinity clearly as the follows there is one God in whom there are three / eternal simultaneous persons the father the son who is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit all three are one God Co eternal co-equal etc yet there is only one God not three gods and not one person who took three modes or form so CaRMS you know is very clear on that issue Carm statement faith is correct but TD jakes statement is unfortunately incorrect so even as a result of various criticisms of Jake's teachings Jake's still will not afford affirm the Orthodox position on the Trinity and steady skirts the issue in continues using the manifestation terminology in one interview on a Los Angeles radio station even implicitly denies the Trinity navigates a oneness theology view of God so with all this said why is the Trinity really important like what's the big deal well the modalism U of T Jake's is a very serious biblical error for a number of reasons first the Trinitarian view of God is the correct biblical view of God which Jake's rejects second with the modal istic view of God we were left with many errors regarding the incarnation of Jesus or of Jesus becoming you know God becoming man when Jesus is praying in the garden gets sent me to the Father someone as theologians argue that Jesus's flesh is praying to his divine self if this is the case then Jesus's divine self has not been truly incarnated the Incarnation is then a not a true incarnation of God if sometimes the father sometimes the Son and then sometimes the Holy Spirit when Jesus was incarnated on the earth he was fully divine the entire time his divine self did not leave his human self to go govern the universe etc third according to Scripture Jesus was eternally the son Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever also John 1:1 in the beginning was the word the word is with God the Word was God so Jesus always was the divine son he didn't become the son at his incarnation he always was according to one his theology the being that is incarnated is not the eternal son but the eternal father as a serious problem forth for the sacrifice of God the Son Jesus on the cross to have any significance he must atone for sinners before God the Father if Jesus is dying to reconcile people to himself is incompatible with the biblical view where Jesus dies as a substitute is to satisfy the rapp of God the Father that's found in 1st Peter 2:24 1st Peter 3:18 Romans 5:9 Ephesians chapter 2 verses 3 through 5 first Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 10 and first Thessalonians 5:9 so while Jesus does say he wants to draw him into himself that is true but he's still dying to satisfy the wrath of God who is a distinct person it's very important to understand that in Christian theology so while one does not have to necessarily positively affirm the Trinity or understand completely all aspects of the Trinity to be saved if one denies it he or she is in serious biblical Aaron be teaching on a major television network like TV n furthermore it is true that the doctor the Trinity is not fully comprehensible by humans which I totally agree with but it is problematical when people like Jakes deny the Orthodox teaching of Scripture even after numerous warnings and specific clarification so Jake's first problem is the Trinity the second major problem I see with TD jakes is unclear Ness on certain issues this other issue is water baptism speaking in tongues in relation to ship the salvation on the potter's house website there's a statement of faith unfortunately like many ministries the statement of faith on this website is vague in a number of key theological areas for one it is unclear whether Jake's believes with this one is Pentecostal heritage which believes that baptism and speaking in tongues are necessary for salvation that's water baptism and speaking in tongues so Jake's really isn't clarifying this regarding salvation the Potter house site states the following the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only grounds for justification and salvation for all who believe and only such as receive Jesus Christ by faith are born of the Holy Spirit and thus become children of God so it doesn't really say what actually saves you say you're safe through Jesus okay well how is that grace house that means of grace brought to you the vagueness continues in their statement about man man was created in the image of God but fell into sin and is therefore lost and only through regeneration by the Holy Spirit can salvation and spiritual life be attained the question is how does that run a regeneration take place what's the cause of it or what's the means of it the statement of faith apparently in the case of what our baptism is speaking in tongues are not necessary for salvation but there's no clear statement one way or the other the statement of faith states regarding baptism water baptism by immersion soon after accepting Christ as personal Savior is a testimony of death to sin and resurrection to a new life what does this testimony to sin actually mean is that's a zammis symbol or is it a means to salvation as someoneís Pentecostals believe it would be helpful Jake's would actually clarify his position on baptism and speaking in tongues since he comes from a oneness so heritage in the statement of faith basically there is no statement on the church views on whether speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation again this is something that oneness Pentecostals hold to they think you have to speak in tongues to be saved well is within biblical orthodoxy to believe that tongues are operable today as some Pentecostals believe today it is heretical to teach that they are necessary for salvation and you can look at many articles on karma org that address that topic the third main issue with TD jakes is teachings is his ordination of women as pastors well most of the pastor's of the Potters house are males The Potter's House ordains women pastors you can find that on their web site and the reference will be on the screen I'm not sure exactly to what extent jakes allows women pastors to teach and preach to men in a senior pastor position but as ministry explicitly supports women ministering as senior pastors again this is found on one of their websites which and that again that that practice is against biblical teaching so you can look at 1st Timothy 2 chapter 2 and Titus 1 which clearly talked about that issue and again you can look at the Karm dot org website for a complete refutation of that position so I'm going to give a summary of t Jakes in the potter's house or the bishop thomas dexter jake's known as TD jakes he's orthodox in the following teachings first he believes the in Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of God he also believes the Bible is the final authority on issues of doctrine he believes that Jesus is God he believes that Jesus rose bodily from the grave he believed there's believes that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary he believes that there will be a personal imminent premillennial return of Christ he believes that there will be a bodily resurrection of the dead and finally he believes that believers will go to everlasting conscious bliss but unbelievers to everlasting conscious torment again these are some of the good beliefs that TD jakes has they're orthodox that are solidly biblical and we applaud him for that but unfortunately TJX also has some unorthodox teachings first he denies the Trinity second he allows the ordination of women Espace ters and third he baptizes in the name of the Lord Jesus rather than in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit as Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 to talk about you can see further articles in car talk about that issue in depth also thirdly Bishop Jake's is very unclear on some of his beliefs regarding whether baptism is necessary for salvation or not and whether speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation or not so since he's from one is Pentecostal roots we would like him to clarify that issue so that we understand what his stances are on that so in conclusion should you listen and and sit under the teachings of TD jakes my recommendation would be an emphatic no should we pray for him love him and want to reach out to him absolutely

Channel: CARM Videos

Views: 17,564

Rating: 4.3707867 out of 5

Keywords: televangelist, ryan, turner, www.carm.org, apologetics, modalism, oneness, pentecostalism, speaking, in, tongues, baptism, trinity

Id: JuEg5uLzKjE

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2011