Friday, May 18, 2007

Does T. D. Jakes Really Reject the Trinity? Can You Prove He Is A Modalist?

I’ve had a lot of people ask this question and so I thought I would give what I believe is the strongest evidence for this claim. It involves an audio file of Jakes preaching, taken from Alpha and Omega Ministries. I have copied and pasted the section from my thesis on T. D. Jakes.

The best example of Jakes’ true belief concerning Jesus and the Father centers around John 14:11. In this verse, Jesus said, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me . . . .” In a blatant misrepresentation of Scripture, Jakes collaborates with a female reader quoting this verse:
Jakes: I am going to rack your head, I’m going to scramble your heads . . . .
Reader: “Believest thou not that I am the Father?”
Jakes: Don’t you understand that “I am . . . .” – Oh!
Reader: Oh!
Jakes: “I am . . . believest thou not that I am the Father.”
Attempting to express amazement at Jesus’ confession that He was the Father, Jakes and his reader cry out with surprise, as though this was new revelation previously undiscovered. However, considering there is no Modal translation of the Bible, Jakes must have prompted the female reader to omit the preposition “in” while reading Jesus’ words, “I am in the Father.” His willingness to take away from the Word of God in order to make his interpretation work is a tactic that draws the condemnation of Scripture itself (Deut 4:2; 12:32; Prov 30:6; Jer 26:2; and Rev 22:18-19).
(Simon Escobedo and Eddie Dalcour, “Oneness Pentecostalism: The Teaching of T. D. Jakes Exposed,” Summer 2002, http://www.straitgate.com/aom/ (25 July 2002).

6 comments:

M. Jay Bennett said...

Thanks Jonathan!

I was just having this conversation with a fellow LifeWay associate last night, and I couldn't point her to evidence that Jakes was modalist. Trusted teachers have told me he was, but I had no evidence beyond that. This is helpful!

Although, it's sad that one of the most popular figures in the American church denies an essential tenet of the faith and is, therefore, un-Christian. It's also sad that many who do attend Christian churches do not seem to care that Jakes is a heretic.

Michael J. Svigel said...

I'm actually convinced that if your average evangelical were to try to explain the Trinity beyond reciting a memorized confession, we'd discover that they're modalistic in their thinking about the Trinity.

See my whiny essay at my blog, http://svigel.blogspot.com/2007/01/evangelical-modalism.html.

Jonathan Moorhead said...

Dr. Svigel, I assume "whiny" posts are accepted on this blog?

M. Jay Bennett said...

Not only accepted but appreciated!

M. Jay Bennett said...

More on Jakes here.

C. Michael Patton said...

great site!