Wolves sheep's clothing/Oneness/ T.D.Jakes
T.D. Jakes
Bishop Thomas Dexter “T.D.” Jakes was born in 1957 and is a popular black preacher and evangelist who is the lead pastor of The Potter's House church in Dallas, Texas which was founded in 1996. As of date it has a congregation of over thirty thousand members.[1] T. D. Jakes' church services and evangelistic sermons are broadcast on The Potter's Touch, which airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Black Entertainment Television[2], the Daystar Television Network, The Word Network and The Miracle Channel in Canada. Other aspects of Jakes' ministry include an annual revival called "Mega Fest" that draws more than 100,000 people, an annual women's conference called "Woman Thou Art Loosed", and gospel music recordings.
Jake comes from a United Pentecostal, or Oneness Pentecostal, background. He was born in South Charleston, West Virginia to Ernest Jakes, Sr., a janitor and entrepreneur, and Odith, an educator. Even as a child, he was known in his West Virginian neighborhood as "the bad Bible boy."[3] In 1979, with very little funds of his own and with only ten initial members, he founded Greater Emmanuel Temple of Faith as a storefront church in Montgomery, West Virginia In 1982 Jakes left his daytime job, digging ditches, and went into full time ministry. During its first 10 years, the church grew to over 1,000 members.[4]
By 1990, his church had moved twice, first from Montgomery to the nearby community of Smithers, and from there to his hometown of South Charleston. In 1993, the church moved yet again within the Charleston area, to Cross Lanes; the building having been formerly a bank.[5] In 1995, when he was 38 years old, Jakes started his television ministry.[4] In 1996, Jakes founded The Potter's House in Dallas, Texas, with about 50 families that had relocated with him from his former congregation in Cross Lanes.[6]
Jakes and his Church The Potters House have done some tremendously good public out reach projects and have helped communities. Locally, to name just a few of his church’s contributions, the Potter’s House reaches out to AIDS victims through education and assistance and also has a large outreach to prison inmates. On an international level The Potter’s House launched “Faith for Africa” 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 Jakes has made through his church.
Sadly however no matter how much good a pastor’s church or that pastor does is in vain unless it is done for the name of the Biblical God of the Bible. A church or a pastor can be doing lots of “good” things by the worlds standards but if they are not being done in the name of Christ of the bible than they have not eternal value. That is what we have going on here with T.D. Jakes and The Potter's House. While Jakes and his church accomplishes a lot of “good” deeds they are not worthy deeds in the eyes of God because T.D. Jakes is not preaching or teaching about the Biblical God or Christ of the Bible. T.D. Jakes teaches an unorthodox view of the Trinity. He teaches what is known as an Oneness or Modalistic view of the Godhead. As we see at The Potter's House’s website, under their statement of faith regarding God, they state, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”[7] The important thing here is to look at the wording they use. They use “three manifestations” instead of using words like simultaneous, coeternal, or coequal when referring to the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s) and the relationship to one another. As stated above Jakes view of the Godhead is the view of Modalism. Mhis is a heresy that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as distinct persons. Instead God at sometimes and places is the Father, at some times the Son, and other times the Holy Spirit.
There seems to be a movement within modern Christianity to bring Modalistic teachers like T.D. Jakes into mainstream Trinitarian churches. One such movement involved Pastors like Mark Driscol of Mars Hill in Seattle WA, and James MacDonald of Harvest Chapel Bible Church in IL in which they held a conference, The Elephant Room 2, in which they tried to justify Jakes Modalism. They tried get Jakes to say just enough of the Christiansen wording to convince people that Jakes is now a Trinitarian. This attempt failed. Jakes did not renounce his Oneness views and these two pastors only ended up confusing and blurring the lines of doctrine for many of that conferences attendees.
T.D. Jakes Modalism is not his only problematic teaching. Another area of concern comes in on his teachings on Water Baptism, Speaking in Tongues, and Salvation. According to the Potter's House’s statement of faith, which unfortunately is very vague in many important theological areas, it is unclear whether Jakes agrees with his Oneness Pentecostal heritage. This heritage believes that baptism and speaking in tongues are necessary for salvation. On The subject of salvation The Potter's House site states, “The shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground 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.”[8] The problem here is that again they are very vague on their statements and are making generalizations that can be left to open ended interpretations. These can be either interpreted as Oneness or Trinitarian views of those issues.
Unfortunately, the vagueness continues when it comes to their statement about man. According to their website; “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 obtained.”[9] The Potter’s House statement of faith neither denies nor confirms but instead is very vague on the subject of whether water baptism and speaking and tongues are necessary for salvation.
When it comes to the actual topic of baptism their statement it confuses the issue in whether baptism is required for salvation or just symbolic. The confusion is because of the following statement; “Water baptism by immersion soon after accepting Christ as personal Savior, is a testimony of death to sin and resurrection to a new life.”[10] What does this “testimony of death to sin” mean? Since Jakes comes from a Oneness background it would be helpful if he would clarify what is meant by this statement.
In the church’s statement of faith, there is no statement on the church’s views on speaking in tongues. While it is within Biblical orthodoxy to believe that tongues are operable today, it is heretical to teach that they are necessary for salvation. Again we are left with a certain vagueness that can lead to wide open ended interpretations of their views on this subject.
A last major area of concern with The Potter’s House and T.D. Jakes is in the area of the ordination of Women as Pastors. While it seems that most of the pastors at The Potter’s House are males, The Potter’s House ordains women pastors.[11] It is unclear to exactly what extent Jakes allows women pastors to teach and preach in the church but his ministry explicitly supports women ministering as senior pastors.[12] No matter what the level of women teaching is in a Pastoral role it is not allow, according to 2 Timothy 2:12-14 in the bible, women are not allowed to hold Pastoral roles in churches.
Recap of T.D. Jakes & The Potter's House False teaching
[1] "Biography" . Bishop T.D. Jakes. T.D. Jakes Website. Retrieved 2007-12-22
[2] Washington Post Article
[3] "Cover Story: Bishop T. D. Jakes" . PBS. January 14, 2000. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
[4] Christ Notes
[5] Christ Notes
[6] "Bishop T. D. Jakes — Timeline" (PDF). The Potter's House. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
[7] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/.
[8] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/.
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid
[11] (1) http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/16/30/ and (2) Ordination of woman in 2002:
[12] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/85/107/ contains a clear statement of support of women pastors,
Jake comes from a United Pentecostal, or Oneness Pentecostal, background. He was born in South Charleston, West Virginia to Ernest Jakes, Sr., a janitor and entrepreneur, and Odith, an educator. Even as a child, he was known in his West Virginian neighborhood as "the bad Bible boy."[3] In 1979, with very little funds of his own and with only ten initial members, he founded Greater Emmanuel Temple of Faith as a storefront church in Montgomery, West Virginia In 1982 Jakes left his daytime job, digging ditches, and went into full time ministry. During its first 10 years, the church grew to over 1,000 members.[4]
By 1990, his church had moved twice, first from Montgomery to the nearby community of Smithers, and from there to his hometown of South Charleston. In 1993, the church moved yet again within the Charleston area, to Cross Lanes; the building having been formerly a bank.[5] In 1995, when he was 38 years old, Jakes started his television ministry.[4] In 1996, Jakes founded The Potter's House in Dallas, Texas, with about 50 families that had relocated with him from his former congregation in Cross Lanes.[6]
Jakes and his Church The Potters House have done some tremendously good public out reach projects and have helped communities. Locally, to name just a few of his church’s contributions, the Potter’s House reaches out to AIDS victims through education and assistance and also has a large outreach to prison inmates. On an international level The Potter’s House launched “Faith for Africa” 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 Jakes has made through his church.
Sadly however no matter how much good a pastor’s church or that pastor does is in vain unless it is done for the name of the Biblical God of the Bible. A church or a pastor can be doing lots of “good” things by the worlds standards but if they are not being done in the name of Christ of the bible than they have not eternal value. That is what we have going on here with T.D. Jakes and The Potter's House. While Jakes and his church accomplishes a lot of “good” deeds they are not worthy deeds in the eyes of God because T.D. Jakes is not preaching or teaching about the Biblical God or Christ of the Bible. T.D. Jakes teaches an unorthodox view of the Trinity. He teaches what is known as an Oneness or Modalistic view of the Godhead. As we see at The Potter's House’s website, under their statement of faith regarding God, they state, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”[7] The important thing here is to look at the wording they use. They use “three manifestations” instead of using words like simultaneous, coeternal, or coequal when referring to the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s) and the relationship to one another. As stated above Jakes view of the Godhead is the view of Modalism. Mhis is a heresy that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as distinct persons. Instead God at sometimes and places is the Father, at some times the Son, and other times the Holy Spirit.
There seems to be a movement within modern Christianity to bring Modalistic teachers like T.D. Jakes into mainstream Trinitarian churches. One such movement involved Pastors like Mark Driscol of Mars Hill in Seattle WA, and James MacDonald of Harvest Chapel Bible Church in IL in which they held a conference, The Elephant Room 2, in which they tried to justify Jakes Modalism. They tried get Jakes to say just enough of the Christiansen wording to convince people that Jakes is now a Trinitarian. This attempt failed. Jakes did not renounce his Oneness views and these two pastors only ended up confusing and blurring the lines of doctrine for many of that conferences attendees.
T.D. Jakes Modalism is not his only problematic teaching. Another area of concern comes in on his teachings on Water Baptism, Speaking in Tongues, and Salvation. According to the Potter's House’s statement of faith, which unfortunately is very vague in many important theological areas, it is unclear whether Jakes agrees with his Oneness Pentecostal heritage. This heritage believes that baptism and speaking in tongues are necessary for salvation. On The subject of salvation The Potter's House site states, “The shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground 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.”[8] The problem here is that again they are very vague on their statements and are making generalizations that can be left to open ended interpretations. These can be either interpreted as Oneness or Trinitarian views of those issues.
Unfortunately, the vagueness continues when it comes to their statement about man. According to their website; “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 obtained.”[9] The Potter’s House statement of faith neither denies nor confirms but instead is very vague on the subject of whether water baptism and speaking and tongues are necessary for salvation.
When it comes to the actual topic of baptism their statement it confuses the issue in whether baptism is required for salvation or just symbolic. The confusion is because of the following statement; “Water baptism by immersion soon after accepting Christ as personal Savior, is a testimony of death to sin and resurrection to a new life.”[10] What does this “testimony of death to sin” mean? Since Jakes comes from a Oneness background it would be helpful if he would clarify what is meant by this statement.
In the church’s statement of faith, there is no statement on the church’s views on speaking in tongues. While it is within Biblical orthodoxy to believe that tongues are operable today, it is heretical to teach that they are necessary for salvation. Again we are left with a certain vagueness that can lead to wide open ended interpretations of their views on this subject.
A last major area of concern with The Potter’s House and T.D. Jakes is in the area of the ordination of Women as Pastors. While it seems that most of the pastors at The Potter’s House are males, The Potter’s House ordains women pastors.[11] It is unclear to exactly what extent Jakes allows women pastors to teach and preach in the church but his ministry explicitly supports women ministering as senior pastors.[12] No matter what the level of women teaching is in a Pastoral role it is not allow, according to 2 Timothy 2:12-14 in the bible, women are not allowed to hold Pastoral roles in churches.
Recap of T.D. Jakes & The Potter's House False teaching
- Denies the Trinity.
- Allows ordination of women as pastors.
- Baptizes in the name of the Lord Jesus rather than in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- No statement whether water baptism is necessary for salvation or not.
- No statement whether speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation or not.
[1] "Biography" . Bishop T.D. Jakes. T.D. Jakes Website. Retrieved 2007-12-22
[2] Washington Post Article
[3] "Cover Story: Bishop T. D. Jakes" . PBS. January 14, 2000. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
[4] Christ Notes
[5] Christ Notes
[6] "Bishop T. D. Jakes — Timeline" (PDF). The Potter's House. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
[7] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/.
[8] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/.
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid
[11] (1) http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/16/30/ and (2) Ordination of woman in 2002:
[12] http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/85/107/ contains a clear statement of support of women pastors,
