Code Orange Revival ~ Code heresy ABound
Well this Sunday marked the last days of the 12 days of heresy brought to us by Steven Furtick’s Code Orange Revival at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. With the closing of the event that seems to be set to launch Furtick’s career as TBN’s (The Blasphemy Network) next Televangelist is over does not mean the fallout from this prodigious heretical event is over. The damage from the bankrupt teachings of this event will be with us for something. Leaving us to deal with a triage of wounded brothers and sisters that bought into the heterodoxy sold at what are now calling the Code Vomit Revival.
Over the last 12 days of this event we have heard from 12 different speakers, 10 of which where definitely teachers of heretical narcissistic eisegesis such as; Steven Furtick, host and seeker-driven pastor of Elevation Church; Craig Groeschel, visionary and creator of the Propensity Gospel preaching LifeChurch.tv; Prosperity preacher Jentezen Franklin; Hillsong darling Christine Caine; Joel Osteen’s worship leader, Israel Houghton; Word-Faith proponent Stovall Weems, lead pastor at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL: Ed Young, the sex pastor and author best know for such recusancy books as “Sexperiment”; Modalist (Non-Trinitarian) “Bishop” T.D. Jakes; Perry Noble senior pastor of New Spring Church in South Carolina, a most prominent mega-church. Noble has rapidly become a favorite among those who shrink away from "traditional" church services; Lastly we have on the ducat of heresy Pastor Kevin Gerald. Gerald pastors Champions Center in the Pacific Northwest along with his wife, Sheila. Yes, you read that correctly. The Geralds are co-pastors, so already we have a significant problem. The motto of this "church" is "Equipping people to live successful Christian lives." I would love to know Kevin Gerald's definition of "success," because I have a sneaking suspicion that someone like, oh, the Apostle Paul, would never measure up to such a definition.
Well there were a few bright spot among the theological murkiness and monkary that was prevalent at the Code Orange Revival. One of those bright spots was Matt Chandler who serves as lead pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX. Chandler spoke a very powerful and biblically centered message. He chastised those who were making the bible and their preaching of the bible of them. He told those in attendance, to the dismay of Steven Furtick, that the bible was NOT about them but about Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelations. This message was not received well by Furtick. This could be seen by his body language and the fact that the Elevation 24/7 TV network did not rebroadcast his sermon until they where exposed for not rebroadcasting it by bloggers and Tweets. Steven Furtick the next day sent out an apology Tweet stating that they would after all be rebroadcasting Chandler’s sermon. It seems that Furtick’s idol chart of narcissistism was tipped over by Chandler’s clear cut and Christ centered message.
Another bright spot was Pastor James MacDonald, senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in the Chicago land area and voice behind his radio program called “Walk in the Word”. MacDonald spoke twice during this event once on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. MacDonald’s message on Saturday night was a biblical message about repentance and the need for both people and the church to repent of sins. His message was strait on and direct. Judging by the body language of Furtick he had that worried look about him like maybe it was the first time he himself actually heard biblical teaching and the Gospel being preached and not the law.
If you were following our Twitter feed at EBCApologetics on his sermon you would have seen a blow by blow analysis of his sermon. We graded his sermon as a B+ overall. He could have earned an A if was not for the weak ending by the out of context use of Revelations 3:20. He sadly misstated this verse as Jesus knocking at the door of your heart wanting to come in. When we look at this in context we see that this has nothing to do with Jesus wanting to come into our hearts. Instead Jesus is rebuking the Laodicea church telling them to repent. Revelation 3:20 is a call for churches to repent not for Jesus to enter the door of your heart.
As I mentioned earlier MacDonald spoke twice in this event the second time was on Sunday Morning. In this message he spoke on Tithing. I wish this message was as solid and biblical as his first message was. Sadly it was not only earning a C by our standards of biblical accuracy. MacDonald Sunday talk was on the subject of money and Tithing during which he misquoted Malachi 3:6-12. He spent an adsorbent amount of time telling us that if we do not tithe we will not be blessed by God, which is an Old Testament teaching not a New Testament church teaching. He even went as far as to state that the LAW of tithing superseded Christ’s completion of the Law on the Cross. That in Christ’s death on the cross did not stop the law when it comes to tithing and that tithing was still in play for today. Did you hear that ripping sound? Oh that was Macdonald taking Malachi 3 out of context. First all when Christ died on the Cross fully completed the Law at 613 laws of the Old Testament. Secondly, by MacDonald stating what he did has ineffectively said that Christ’s atoning work on the Cross and our Justification by His imputation was not enough. Thirdly, there is no New Testament admonition to pay tithes. The reason is because we are not under law; that is, we don't "have to" pay tithes. We don’t see paying tithes in the Acts 2 as a required function for the church.
While we shouldn't feel obligated to pay tithes. We should what you give to our church and that is between you and God. Not you, your pastor and God. We should be giving because it is Christ that lives within us and the Holy Spirit that makes us want to give and give graciously to others and our churches.
Sadly Macdonald took a time that could have been spent preaching a solid biblical message and giving the Gospel to those in attendance and watching online and wasted it on preaching the Law. The only thing his preaching of the Law did was bring people closer to sinning because the preaching of the Law is a school master to show us our sin. The Law does not save us from it. So sadly I would say since there was no Gospel given Sunday by James MacDonald in his message Sunday no one heard the saving call of the Lord because of the Law of the Tithe being preached.
Over all the Code Orange Revival was no revival at all. I would venture to say that the Holy Spirit was not there. There may have been a Spirit there but it wasn’t holy. Steven Furtick had a real good chance to make something good of this event by enlisting some solid biblical teachers to speak at this event. Instead he choose to promote heresy and narcissistic eisegesis that only raised the ego of the speakers and the flesh of those watching. While some may argue with me and others calling us "haters" and say that “life change” was happening at this event. I have news for them a “life change” may have happen but when you have emotionalism and unbiblical preaching that “life change” is not a Christ change. It is a change based on human emotion, humanism and one's ego wanting pumping.
The Code Orange Revival was not a success as Furtick wished it would be. Instead it exposed his unbiblical alliances and actually has helped those defending the true Christian faith against wolves in sheep’s clothing job a little easier by castings a light on all the heretics he associates with.
Over the last 12 days of this event we have heard from 12 different speakers, 10 of which where definitely teachers of heretical narcissistic eisegesis such as; Steven Furtick, host and seeker-driven pastor of Elevation Church; Craig Groeschel, visionary and creator of the Propensity Gospel preaching LifeChurch.tv; Prosperity preacher Jentezen Franklin; Hillsong darling Christine Caine; Joel Osteen’s worship leader, Israel Houghton; Word-Faith proponent Stovall Weems, lead pastor at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL: Ed Young, the sex pastor and author best know for such recusancy books as “Sexperiment”; Modalist (Non-Trinitarian) “Bishop” T.D. Jakes; Perry Noble senior pastor of New Spring Church in South Carolina, a most prominent mega-church. Noble has rapidly become a favorite among those who shrink away from "traditional" church services; Lastly we have on the ducat of heresy Pastor Kevin Gerald. Gerald pastors Champions Center in the Pacific Northwest along with his wife, Sheila. Yes, you read that correctly. The Geralds are co-pastors, so already we have a significant problem. The motto of this "church" is "Equipping people to live successful Christian lives." I would love to know Kevin Gerald's definition of "success," because I have a sneaking suspicion that someone like, oh, the Apostle Paul, would never measure up to such a definition.
Well there were a few bright spot among the theological murkiness and monkary that was prevalent at the Code Orange Revival. One of those bright spots was Matt Chandler who serves as lead pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX. Chandler spoke a very powerful and biblically centered message. He chastised those who were making the bible and their preaching of the bible of them. He told those in attendance, to the dismay of Steven Furtick, that the bible was NOT about them but about Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelations. This message was not received well by Furtick. This could be seen by his body language and the fact that the Elevation 24/7 TV network did not rebroadcast his sermon until they where exposed for not rebroadcasting it by bloggers and Tweets. Steven Furtick the next day sent out an apology Tweet stating that they would after all be rebroadcasting Chandler’s sermon. It seems that Furtick’s idol chart of narcissistism was tipped over by Chandler’s clear cut and Christ centered message.
Another bright spot was Pastor James MacDonald, senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in the Chicago land area and voice behind his radio program called “Walk in the Word”. MacDonald spoke twice during this event once on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. MacDonald’s message on Saturday night was a biblical message about repentance and the need for both people and the church to repent of sins. His message was strait on and direct. Judging by the body language of Furtick he had that worried look about him like maybe it was the first time he himself actually heard biblical teaching and the Gospel being preached and not the law.
If you were following our Twitter feed at EBCApologetics on his sermon you would have seen a blow by blow analysis of his sermon. We graded his sermon as a B+ overall. He could have earned an A if was not for the weak ending by the out of context use of Revelations 3:20. He sadly misstated this verse as Jesus knocking at the door of your heart wanting to come in. When we look at this in context we see that this has nothing to do with Jesus wanting to come into our hearts. Instead Jesus is rebuking the Laodicea church telling them to repent. Revelation 3:20 is a call for churches to repent not for Jesus to enter the door of your heart.
As I mentioned earlier MacDonald spoke twice in this event the second time was on Sunday Morning. In this message he spoke on Tithing. I wish this message was as solid and biblical as his first message was. Sadly it was not only earning a C by our standards of biblical accuracy. MacDonald Sunday talk was on the subject of money and Tithing during which he misquoted Malachi 3:6-12. He spent an adsorbent amount of time telling us that if we do not tithe we will not be blessed by God, which is an Old Testament teaching not a New Testament church teaching. He even went as far as to state that the LAW of tithing superseded Christ’s completion of the Law on the Cross. That in Christ’s death on the cross did not stop the law when it comes to tithing and that tithing was still in play for today. Did you hear that ripping sound? Oh that was Macdonald taking Malachi 3 out of context. First all when Christ died on the Cross fully completed the Law at 613 laws of the Old Testament. Secondly, by MacDonald stating what he did has ineffectively said that Christ’s atoning work on the Cross and our Justification by His imputation was not enough. Thirdly, there is no New Testament admonition to pay tithes. The reason is because we are not under law; that is, we don't "have to" pay tithes. We don’t see paying tithes in the Acts 2 as a required function for the church.
While we shouldn't feel obligated to pay tithes. We should what you give to our church and that is between you and God. Not you, your pastor and God. We should be giving because it is Christ that lives within us and the Holy Spirit that makes us want to give and give graciously to others and our churches.
Sadly Macdonald took a time that could have been spent preaching a solid biblical message and giving the Gospel to those in attendance and watching online and wasted it on preaching the Law. The only thing his preaching of the Law did was bring people closer to sinning because the preaching of the Law is a school master to show us our sin. The Law does not save us from it. So sadly I would say since there was no Gospel given Sunday by James MacDonald in his message Sunday no one heard the saving call of the Lord because of the Law of the Tithe being preached.
Over all the Code Orange Revival was no revival at all. I would venture to say that the Holy Spirit was not there. There may have been a Spirit there but it wasn’t holy. Steven Furtick had a real good chance to make something good of this event by enlisting some solid biblical teachers to speak at this event. Instead he choose to promote heresy and narcissistic eisegesis that only raised the ego of the speakers and the flesh of those watching. While some may argue with me and others calling us "haters" and say that “life change” was happening at this event. I have news for them a “life change” may have happen but when you have emotionalism and unbiblical preaching that “life change” is not a Christ change. It is a change based on human emotion, humanism and one's ego wanting pumping.
The Code Orange Revival was not a success as Furtick wished it would be. Instead it exposed his unbiblical alliances and actually has helped those defending the true Christian faith against wolves in sheep’s clothing job a little easier by castings a light on all the heretics he associates with.
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