When it comes to getting advice, President Barack Obama is following the same path as the two men who came before him.
He’s leaning on Bishop T. D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas. The bishop returned from Washington Wednesday afternoon.
“It was an amazing experience,” Jakes said. He summed up the entire day in one word, “Unity.”
“Republicans and Democrats, young and old were coming together in a sense that was mind boggling.”
Bishop who?
Ironically, the March For Life is taking place in Washington commemorating the 36th anniversary and the loss of 50 million human lives.
This event follows only two days after the Inauguration of a President who has declared his intention to enact the Freedom of Choice Act and that today, his first day in office, has promised to sign a pro-abortion act.
Obama’s Senate voting record shows he has supported even the most radical pro-abortion legislation.
Ironically, the new President’s mother was a single mother and Planned Parenthood secular money-oriented culture would have defended, excused, even celebrated her choice to have an abortion.
Another young man in the news, Tim Tebow could have been victims of abortion…Mrs. Tebow was advised by physicians to abort for health reasons.
May the Risen Lord shine the light of His Face, His Holy Truth, Love and Life to convert the new President as when He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus.
flabellum, you might want to do a google search. TD Jakes is one of the most important preachers in the world. Period.
Bishop Jakes is indeed one of the most important preachers in the world. It grieves me that he is a Unitarian. It is my prayer that some day he comes to know Jesus.
#4: I think he is a “Jesus only” Pentecostal. This is somewhat different from a Unitarian. To him Jesus IS God. His view either is or boarders on what has been called Sabellianism or modalism.
I am well-aware of “Jesus-Only” Pentecostal Unitarianism, often stopping by the little Jesus-Only Church in the town where I went to college to sit and listen to the music and preaching.
But Sabellianism is unitarian, right? Bishop Jakes denies that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son incarnate, “the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father; God from God, Light from Light.” He is not a Christian and does not know who Jesus is.
I only posted because someone might interpret the comment about him being “one of the most important preachers in the world,” which he clearly is, to mean that he was a Christian preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which he clearly is not.
Could someone help me understand the apparent contradiction between the description of Bishop Jakes’ theology above and the belief statement of the Potters House (see http://www.thepottershouse.org/v2/content/view/18/32/) which seems unambiguously Trinitarian to me.
Well, OK not “unambiguously” Trinitarian (I just read it closely and it does say God in three “manifestations”, not “persons”) but it does seem to confess the dual nature of Christ and yet clearly also refers to the Father and the Holy Spirit. So I don’t fully understand the “Christ-only” reference above.
James Manley—if T.D. Jakes believes in Christ as the risen Lord, doesn’t that make him a Christian?
James, I think that one of the confusions might be how the black pentecostal church preaches. I remember one sermon where the preacher was instinctively relating the three persons of the Trinity (it was like extending the nicene creed for 20 minutes) before the altar call.
But I didn’t see where Jakes isn’t a trinitarian.
But I don’t think there is an interest in “theology” as much as the personal experience of the power of the spirit. who he callse Jesus Christ.
And it seems that it works. There are fruits….
Lutheran Visitor (et al),
Describing the Trinity as three “manifestations” and not “persons” (hence being able to refer to the Father and the Holy Spirit), as well as confessing the dual nature of Christ, would be consistent with Sabellianism, or modalistic monarchianism, or what in its “Jesus-Only” Pentecostal form has also been called “evangelical unitarianism”.
The “evangelical” designation is given to distinguish it from “classic” unitarianism (or Socinianism, or dynamic monarchianism), to distinguish its unambiguous (and sole) attribution of deity to Jesus from the unambiguous denial of Jesus’ deity in “classic” unitarianism.
“Jesus Only” Pentecostals believe that Jesus is God, but they deny that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are eternal, since all three are comprehended in the deity of Jesus.
My above remarks being said, I don’t find anything in the Potter’s House statement of faith that isn’t consistent with Nicene trinitarianism except for the use of “manifestations” instead of “persons”. But – and I don’t mean this in some supercilious or snide way – theological precision has never been the strongpoint of Pentecostals. So no doubt the statement is patient of either a trinitarian or a “Jesus Only” unitarian interpretation.
Lutheran Visitor: I’m familiar with “Jesus-Only” Pentecostal Unitarianism, but I’ve never heard of “Christ-Only” Pentecostal Unitarianism.
ember: The demons believe, and tremble. Doesn’t make them Christians.
John Wilkins: Jakes has denied being a trinitarian every time he has been asked publically if he is one. He submitted an essay to Christianity Today denying his belief in the Trinity. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/februaryweb-only/13.0b.html
I think if you met me, you’d decide that your assertion that I don’t know how black pentecostal preachers preach wouldn’t be the particular line of argument you’d want to pursue (don’t know how to put a smiley face)
Sorry, I wrote “Christ only” while meaning to say “Jesus only”. I’d never heard of either of them, in fact.
I read the Christianity Today article by Jakes. Whatever else you might conclude about it, I don’t see how he is “clearly” “denying his belief in the Trinity” there. He is asserting his belief in what he describes as the Trinity, which may not be Nicene trinitarianism (seems not), but which he claims to be the Trinity as revealed in Scripture. One could perhaps convict him of not being a Nicene trinitarian on the basis of that article, but it requires some doing and would be doing so over his objection.
#3…flabellum clearly knows who TD Jakes is. He was referring to TD’s self proclaimed status as a Bishop.
In the article he says that “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
I admit he is biblical, at least. I don’t see what he denies.
TD jakes is a bishop in the Pentecostal church. That’s true.
He denies that the Three, while one, are separate and distinct persons.
And by the way, that verse is questionable as to its origin. It’s certainly not in the earliest MS we have of the epistle.