Hey friends! Even though it has been a while since I have blogged, I am going to do my best not to start this post of by saying “Well, it’s been a while since I last blogged” The deal is I am busy, really busy, like I might be on the verge of too busy. Blogging has simply fallen of the list of things that are important.
I am also growing in my understanding on how and when to respond to controversy.
I have come to understand a few things…
- I cannot control everything everyone post on social media.
- Especially silly post about Christianity posted by Christians
- I do not need to be the Facebook warrior for Jesus, He does not need me to defend Him
- If I do defend Him, it only makes sense to do so where and with whom he has given me influence and trust with.
I no longer feel then need to feverishly address every bit of error I see on Facebook, I am free to not respond, and so are you! However, I still feel a responsibility to address error where God has given me the previously mentioned influence and a platform. It comes down to this, I am to be a Faithful Son of God, a Faithful follower of Jesus and a Faithful friend to all that he places in my life. I can do all this with posting every objection I have to everyone’s comment sections.
In this mind, If you consider me a friend, if you care for my opinion even a little bit, can I simply talk to you a bit about “Pastor Steven Furtick “?
If you will, take a second and watch this clip from Furtick’s Facebook page called “God is my Source”, I’ll wait…
What is wrong here?
At a first glance, nothing much. The message is motivational and exciting, maybe you picked up on this and thought, like I did, that this was just more emotional pleading, and Pastor Furtick is no more than a spiritual hype man who builds his sermons on clever cliches and emotionalism. Now that criticism definitely sticks on a surface level, and in most of Furtick’s “sermons”, it sticks rather well. However this is not the main problem that Furtick constantly presents in his teachings. In fact, I want to be gracious and say that it is okay if the truth of scripture excites or motivates you. You are free in Christ to be emotionally struck by the truth of scripture, and you probably should be! Emotions and excitement are not a problem in and of themselves. Emotionalism can be a huge problem in the church, but even with Furtick, it is not the MAIN problem.
No, his problem lies with the way he teaches scripture.
In the above clip, Furtick picks one verse from Psalms chapter 23, he then, rather cleverly, and rather subtly, makes this scripture primarily about “us” (the listener) while referencing David’s defeat of Goliath. While a lot of what Steven says is tru-ish, for example, God is our source, he does know what we need and he does provide for us the faith. Steven’s error is subtle and hard to pinpoint, and its is even harder to see how teaching like his is dangerous. I know that for a lot of you, insisting that there is a certain way, and even a wrong way, to approach scripture is new and maybe even proposturous.
All I ask is that you hear me out as I do my best to explain.
To see this subtle shift, we need to first read all of Psalms 23! Don’t worry, it’s only like 6 verses.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalms 23:1-6 ESV
Now we could go a lot of ways, for example, much of Steven’s exhortation that he pulls from the scripture is not even expressly in this scripture, or in the Story of David that he cross-references too. Ignore all of that for a minute and ask yourself this question.
When we look at this text, “who” is the main focus?
I would say that”He”, that God is the main focus.
Sure the psalmist does refer to himself a little bit, he fears no evil, his cup overflows and surely goodness and mercy will follow him, but it is clear in this psalm that none of those things happen because of him. Instead this psalmist is singing the praises of his shepherd as evidence through his own life. The only reason he mentions himself at all is to point us away from himself and to the shepherd. He tells us of all the good things the shepherd does for him and in fact, the psalmist would says that all of this is “for his name’s sake”, for the name of God.
Alternatively, who is the focus of Steven’s exhortation?
Well, its “my” or “I”, it is primarily about us! And this is the problem, Steven teaches the scripture as if the point of scripture is “us” or what God can do for us, not that the scriptures are first and foremost about God.
Sure, God gets some credit, he is the source, and he does provide, but according to Steven he provides so that WE ( he says “I”) will be ready to fight Goliath, so that when WE slay Goliath, WE would have his sword in storage for when WE need it again.
First of all….What? Add that theatricality and sprinkle in some emotionalism that Steven is known for, and all of this sounds profound, but when you write it down next to the scripture he is quoting from, it really makes no sense at all.
Take a glance at the video and read psalms 23 again. Is this psalm about our faithfulness, or is it about God’s? Even in his reference to David’s defeat of Goliath, this is not a story about us being ready to fight Goliaths of our own, no this is about God rescuing his people from and enemy they could not defeat, through an unexpected King. Sound familiar, it should! In this story, David is only a shadow, that when rightly preached, doesn’t point us inward on ourselves and how we can defeat Goliath, but ultimately points us outward to Jesus. Jesus is the unlikely king that would ultimately come and defeat the Goliath of our sin that we were helpless to defeat without him!
What’s the big deal?
What Steven does here is epidemic in the broad western evangelical church. This is a classic case of “eisegesis” which means to “read into scripture”. It is where we read into the scriptures our own preferred meaning, and not the meaning that is actually in the text to begin with. You can remember this because “eise” kinda sounds like “I see” so you can think of eisegesis as what “I see” in scripture.
Scripture is less about what we see for ourselves, and more about what God wants to reveal to us about himself.
This is the WRONG way to read scripture, and for those of you that never knew that there was a wrong way to read the bible, there is also a right and opposite way as well.
The opposite way is called exegesis, it is where we strive to read the meaning that was originally intended in the text by it’s author. You can remember this because “exe” sounds like “exit” and the exit it is how you get “out” not how you get “in”. Exegesis is much harder than eisegesis, we have to ask ourselves much more difficult questions like, “Who was this author writing too?” “What was he trying to address?” “What is the context of this verse in it’s chapter, in it’s book, in it’s historical setting?”
With eisegesis, you can simply come up with an idea and find a text that kinda sort says what you want to say. A clear sign that a preacher is reading meaning “Into”a text as opposed to “out from”, is anytime the we, you, me and I become the center focus then we are literally reading ourselves into the text. If the bible is true, then people do not need your clever thoughts and teaching using different text to try and prove your point, they need to know the God who inspired the bible to be written, and in order for that to happen, we have to remove the emphasis of ourselves away from scripture as much as possible.
What is the danger here?
Long term reading and teaching of the bible with “us” as the emphasis ultimately points to us back to ourselves for the answer. All we have to do is believe enough, pray enough, read enough, love enough or have enough faith and we can defeat our Goliath! We can be the hero. Again this distortion is so subtle that most will scroll, like and share a Furtick post, never realizing that they just shared a message that is antithetical to the Gospel.
Friends, the Good News of the Gospel is not that we could not save ourselves, its not about how good we can be or how victorious we are over life’s obstacles. Rather, it is that we had no faith at all, that we were dead in our trespasses, and like Israel, we could NOT defeat Goliath. So God sent a hero, not you, not me, and not even King David, but his only begotten Son, Jesus. Faithful scripture reading and teaching always points us to trust in the finish work of Christ more and more, not more and more trust in ourselves.
Furtick’s particular type of preaching has led some to label Steven as a “Narci-gete”, someone who doesn’t just read extra meaning into the bible, but someone who reads themselves into the bible. When he reads about King David, he thinks that we ought to be the Davids in our lives. Ultimately he fails to realize that David is not the Good Shepherd of his own story, and neither are you the David of your own story, Jesus is!
Furtick is on tour, he even came through my area, and many people, even good gospel people that I attend church with were excited. I would encourage you to simply not go if invited. If someone ask why, maybe you can show them this clip and this blog. Ultimately the Christian life is about the beauty, glory and excellence of God, not man, not us, certainly not you or me.
Furtick shared this clip on his Facebook page, so it is public, and even though short, he must affirm and agree with what he says in it. So to anyone who says “this clip is out of context”is mistaken. He posted it, so he must believe that it stands alone without the fuller context of his entire sermon. If you apply what I just tried to share with you to his other videos, you will see this as a constant theme in his preaching, and even though this is true, we must press the reality of Steven’s error on ourselves.
Are you a narci-gete?
Do you read the bible like a narcissists, with a skewed view of yourself as the main point of the scriptures?
Do you see yourself more than you see Jesus?
Do you attend a church or listen to preaching that is regularly focused on “self”?
Does your church regularly teach scripture in a way that reveals Jesus and draws your focus only to Him?
When it comes to Furtick, I simply can’t, in good conscience endorse him, his teaching or his books to you.
If you would like to see a better video on David and Goliath I would encourage you to watch this…this, I can wholeheartedly endorse!
Theist the Bearded 