Is Todd White A False Teacher?

Category 5

Verdict: Todd White is a charlatan.

Preface

Part of how this Discernment ministry operates is taking in reader questions about prevalent teachers. Todd White was tied for the most active requests. You can make a request here and see our answered verdicts here.

Bio

Todd White is an American charismatic teacher and evangelist, best known for his work with Lifestyle Christianity, a movement that emphasizes the importance of living out one’s faith in daily life. Born on December 7, 1975, in Texas, USA, White grew up in a religious family and gave his life to Christ at a young age.

In his early adult years, White struggled with addiction and a sense of disillusionment with organized religion. However, in 2004, he had a profound spiritual encounter that transformed his life. After this experience, White became a full-time evangelist, focusing on sharing the message of God’s love and grace through his everyday actions and conversations.

White’s teaching ministry, known as Lifestyle Christianity, encourages believers to live out their faith in every aspect of their lives, including their relationships, work, and interactions with others. He emphasizes the power of God’s love to change lives and believes that every Christian has the responsibility to share their faith through their actions and words.

White and his wife, Heather, are the founders of a non-profit organization called “Todd White Ministries.” Through this organization, they travel the world, sharing the message of Lifestyle Christianity and ministering to people from all walks of life.

In his teachings, White often shares personal stories of how God has worked in his life and the lives of others through the power of love and grace. While his approach to Christianity is rooted in the Charismatic tradition, White’s message is accessible and appealing to people from various Christian denominations and backgrounds.

Over the years, White has faced both praise and criticism for his ministry style and teachings. Some have praised his ability to connect with people and share the gospel in a relatable way, while others have raised concerns about the appropriateness of some of his teachings and methods.

Despite the controversies, Todd White remains a prominent figure in the charismatic and Evangelical Christian communities, known for his passionate and engaging approach.

Fake Miracles

Todd White is one of the most famous parlor tricks was a length lengthening video from 2022. Leg Lengthening has been the most trademark healing of Todd White. Yet in his videos of these supposed miracles, the camera angle is deceptive every time, showing the feet with the hips obscured or out of the frame. As Mike Winger points out, these leg healing tricks are manipulative in that Todd White is pushing the uneven legs to an equal position, meaning the leg lengthening is actually a leg shortening. These “miracles” are what Todd White is known for and this is a consistent pattern of behavior.

Christological Error

Kenoticism is a theological concept that attempts to explain the relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, particularly how the two natures coexist and interact within the person of Christ. The term “kenosis” comes from the Greek word meaning “emptying.” The heresy is based on the idea that during the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity (Jesus Christ) “emptied himself” of certain divine attributes in order to take on human nature. This concept is often derived from Philippians 2:7, which states, “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” The kenosis heresy suggests that in becoming human, Jesus divested himself of his divine attributes such as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, but not his divine essence. This would mean that during his earthly ministry, Jesus was not all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, but was rather a finite human being in every respect except his sinless nature. This view was controversial in early Christianity and was condemned by some church fathers, such as John Chrysostom and Augustine, as heretical. They argued that it represented a division within the person of Christ, which they believed compromised his deity and the fullness of his divine nature.

In recent years, kenosis has been on the rise in hyper-charismatic circles with Bill Johnson suggesting that Jesus divested himself of divine attributes until being anointed. Similarly, Todd White has expressed this view. In attempting to explain how Jesus was tempted at all points yet did not sin, despite the nature of God as incorruptible and unable to be tempted (as White understands it).

 I get accused of this one and also that Jesus became man, was fully God and fully man. But if we don’t believe that, then he couldn’t have paid the price to get us to God. Because God made a covenant with man. And if a man wouldn’t have fulfilled that end of the covenant, we couldn’t have gotten to God. And it’s so weird that people are like, when I say that Jesus was fully man, yet he was fully God, that they think I’m taking divinity away from Jesus.

But I’m really not. Like, he humbled himself, became a bond servant, was tempted at all points. Yet was without sin. To be tempted, you can’t be tempted as God because James confirms that it’s impossible for God to be tempted.

And if it’s impossible for God to be tempted, how could Jesus have done it as God, because you can’t tempt God. Yet Jesus was tempted at all points, yet without sin. So that very scripture validates that Jesus, when he came to earth, didn’t do it as God, he did it as a man, and right relationship with God. We have to get this, there’s so much I wanna lay out here, but these are some of the things that I’m labeled as a heretic for. Praise the Lord.

As Disntr notes, “Kenosis Theory twists Philippians 2 where it states that Jesus ‘emptied himself’ by ‘taking the form of a servant’ to mean that Jesus gave up His divinity while on Earth.” Furthermore, Todd White has an incorrect view of what temptation is, as Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15 do not at all denigrate Christ’s divinity. Rather, it maintains a difference between temptation, an external pressure to sin versus sin nature which is our internal drive towards sin. Christ’s temptations were all external, not internal wrestles with sinful nature, for Christ was free of the sin of Adam and is thus called the Second Adam. The lack of desire to sin in the first place makes God untemptable. Todd White’s inability to understand this nuance gives way to a Christological error known as kenosis.

Many new believers do not understand all of these theological nuances; however, Todd White is a teacher and has been for decades.

Prosperity Gospel

Todd White was famously criticized by the American Gospel documentary for being a part of the Prosperity Gospel movement. Indeed, Todd White has extensive connections to Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church in Redding California, and Gateway Church in Texas as well. However, in a viral 2020 sermon, Todd White repudiated the Prosperity Gospel and the ideal that Christianity does not involve repentance, in what is perhaps his most famous sermon. So, while Todd White has been something of a prodigy of Benny Hinn, there is enough evidence to provide distance between White and the Prosperity Gospel which teaches that part of Christ’s work on the cross was to provide health and wealth to his followers.

Pulpit and Pen notes on this:

But what is obvious to even the most casual observer who has even a passing knowledge of Todd White is that something has changed. This is not the sort of sermon he has ever preached before. This is something altogether different. This is a miracle in the making, hopefully, and the saints ought to be praying like crazy for him.

But their enthusiasm would be short-lived due to the shenanigans of leg-lengthening videos and overly provocative statements would continue to be staples of White’s ministry.

Egalitarianism

Todd White is an egalitarian and believes in and supports female pastors. This is abundantly clear as Lifestyle Christian University has multiple female pastors on staff. While there is no evidence that White’s conviction on this point is a result of deconstructing, this is a red flag regarding his ministry, as female pastors go against the clear teaching of Scripture.

Conclusion

If Todd White is indeed saved, he is an immature believer which would be the most charitable explanation for his kenosis heresy his statement about Christ becoming child pornography, his sexualized preaching, and his claiming that the disciples weren’t saved.

Despite how sympathetic believers are inclined to be regarding Todd White’s criticism of the Prosperity Gospel and push for true repentance, this must also be balanced with the continued course of conduct for manipulating fake miracles that Todd White has been known for. And while this makes White more difficult to assess, it’s difficult to recognize someone engaged in chicanery as anything but a charlatan. Even Todd White’s best moment is paired with manipulative background music and tears.

Todd White was groomed into being a false teacher because of his compelling backstory with a history of drug addiction. So one cannot help but see that he continued down the path that his makers set him, however, there has been nominal at best improvement in his teaching going back more than a decade which would be expected of someone who is saved. There is no other conclusion to draw than that he is a false teacher to mark and avoid.