The largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention is Elevation church with approximately 35,000 members, making it the 8th largest church in the United States. Elevation was a plague to the SBC after Steven Furtick acquired a reputation for outlandish claims about what the Bible says. Ultimately, Evangelical Dark Web concluded that Steven Furtick is a false teacher, for numerous reasons.
Recently a clip from a sermon from 2019 went viral. One sentence.
When God said ‘I am’ to Moses, you know, ‘my name is I am,’ he was trying to get him to see ‘you are as I am,’
The clip sound like the worst exegesis of Exodus 3:14, but was this clip taken out of context?
In a most technical sense, the clip was taken out of the context of the sermon, as the individual sentence was isolated. But Steven Furtick makes this reference in passing, as the sermon was not on Exodus. And the audience does not so much as flinch when he says this in passing. More context does not add or take away from the error of the isolated statement in question.
However, more context does make the issue worse. In the video, I show a more extended window of the sermon. And what we see is a message of self-help with Jesus branding on it. This exegetical error was made in passing for a narcissistic message on self love. This must be why Chris Rosenburg of Pirate Christian coined the phrase “narcigesis” to describe Furtick’s preaching.
One Response
Well said, Ray. I completely agree. Keep up the good work!