I just finished reading an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about T.D. Jakes.  Apparently, Mr. Jakes has decided to take his Megafest outside of America this year.  It will be hosted in South Africa.  The paper describes the event as “part religious festival, part self-help fair, part gospel concert.”  Source.

One interesting quote from the article said:  “The United States has a tradition of superstar preachers. Jakes is among the best known of today’s group, along with Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston.”  Source.  As I was reading that statement, I thought, “Is this all we’ve got?  Are these the men who represent American Christianity?”  Sadly, I’m afraid that in the world’s opinion, that’s the case.  If you’ll trudge through the names listed in the above quote, you’ll find that not one of them teaches sound doctrine.

I’m afraid this isn’t just a problem for America any longer.  Because of all of our money, inflated egos, illusions of grandeur, bad theology, and hi-fi tinker toys, we have developed the ability to spread our theological sewage throughout the globe.  Consider this: 

When Jakes preaches that Jesus died to make people free, and “we are not truly free until we are economically free,” he sounds distinctly American. But the sentiment is not foreign to South Africa, where religious leaders like retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu helped lead the fight against apartheid, and megachurches are blooming in Johannesburg suburbs. 

Nkanyiso Bhengu, a popular South African actor, TV host and gospel singer, says young preachers across South Africa are copying Jakes’ approach and style after seeing his DVDs. Bhengu listens to Jakes’ CDs when he’s on the road with his gospel group.  Source.

Instead of patterning their walk after the Son of God, preachers and teachers across the world are molding themselves after such people as T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, and Rick Warren.  Instead of standing upon God’s infallible Word as the first and final authority, they’re taking their inspiration and methods from T.D. Jakes’ CDs.  The global church has no clue whether the doctrine they are sitting under is aberrant, or whether it’s rooted and grounded in Scripture because scripture has lost its significance in the modern church. 

I never understood how anyone could place something so precious and important as their relationship with God, and the state of their eternal soul, into the hands of mere mortal man without doing as the Bereans did and search the scriptures daily to see whether what they say is so.  I just can’t understand how someone can build so much blind trust in someone that they would put God’s Word on the shelf and entrust the well-being of their hearts and spirit to another human being without at least trying to ensure that they are teaching absolute truth.  I guess I’m just not that trusting. 

First of all, my relationship with my Heavenly Father is too important to be so cavalier about His message to us.  I will not toss it aside and expect someone else to exclusively teach me.  Scripture is God’s message to us; it’s how we get to know Him and His Son…it is how we learn truth…how we grow strong and mature.  If it sits on the shelf and draws dust, it will have absolutely no benefit for me, nor will my walk with God be what it should be.  If God took the time to inspire the prophets and apostles to write His Word over the course of a couple of thousand years, then I think it’s important enough that it warrants reading and studying it.  I want to know what He has to say to me! 

Secondly, if I don’t study His Word, I won’t know when I’m being fed heresy, and my eternal soul is far too important to me to chance it!  If I’m sitting under false doctrine, I want to know it!

Biblical illiteracy is epidemic in the church.  As I said above, it’s not just an American problem, it’s global.  The evidence of this is the fact that T.D. Jakes, Patricia King, Benny Hinn, and others have audiences who support them.  Were the church not biblically illiterate, they would outright reject these “clouds without water,” and shun them as heretics.  They would have no audience from which to pilfer their fortunes, nor would they have a ministry.  But, sadly enough, they have millions of followers.  But, what else do you expect in Laodicea?