Anton Bruckner
Puritan Board Professor
Theology: Apologetics Journal Criticizes Jakes
Christian Research Institute publication questions preacher's view of Trinity
By Douglas LeBlanc
February 7, 2000
Christian Research Journal strongly questions the theology of T.D. Jakes in its latest issue, published in January.
The quarterly journal of the southern California-based Christian Research Institute (www.equip.org) quotes from public remarks by Jakes to argue that, whatever baptismal formulas he uses in different venues, his primary theological language for the Godhead remains Oneness Pentecostal.
Members of Oneness Pentecostal churches historically have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as polytheism. The more combative members of Oneness churches say Trinitarians will go to hell.
One of the Journal's most detailed quotations comes from a Los Angeles radio show, "Living By the Word." KKLA-FM broadcast host Jim Coleman's interview with Jakes on August 23 and 30, 1998.
Coleman asks Jakes how important it is for Christians to believe in the Trinity. Jakes responds:
I think it's very, very significant that we first of all study the Trinity apart from salvation, and first of all that we embrace Christ and come to him to know who he is. Having come to know who he is, then we begin to deal with the Trinity, which I believe is a very complex issue. The Trinity, the term 'Trinity,' is not a biblical term, to begin with.
It's a theological description for something that is so beyond human comprehension that I'm not sure that we can totally hold God to a numerical system. The Lord said, "Behold, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one, and beside him there is no other." When God got ready to make a man that looked like him, he didn't make three. He made one man. However, that one man had three parts. He was body, soul, and spirit. We have one God, but he is Father in creation, Son in redemption, and Holy Spirit in regeneration.
The ...
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2000/february7/5.58.html
Christian Research Institute publication questions preacher's view of Trinity
By Douglas LeBlanc
February 7, 2000
Christian Research Journal strongly questions the theology of T.D. Jakes in its latest issue, published in January.
The quarterly journal of the southern California-based Christian Research Institute (www.equip.org) quotes from public remarks by Jakes to argue that, whatever baptismal formulas he uses in different venues, his primary theological language for the Godhead remains Oneness Pentecostal.
Members of Oneness Pentecostal churches historically have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as polytheism. The more combative members of Oneness churches say Trinitarians will go to hell.
One of the Journal's most detailed quotations comes from a Los Angeles radio show, "Living By the Word." KKLA-FM broadcast host Jim Coleman's interview with Jakes on August 23 and 30, 1998.
Coleman asks Jakes how important it is for Christians to believe in the Trinity. Jakes responds:
I think it's very, very significant that we first of all study the Trinity apart from salvation, and first of all that we embrace Christ and come to him to know who he is. Having come to know who he is, then we begin to deal with the Trinity, which I believe is a very complex issue. The Trinity, the term 'Trinity,' is not a biblical term, to begin with.
It's a theological description for something that is so beyond human comprehension that I'm not sure that we can totally hold God to a numerical system. The Lord said, "Behold, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one, and beside him there is no other." When God got ready to make a man that looked like him, he didn't make three. He made one man. However, that one man had three parts. He was body, soul, and spirit. We have one God, but he is Father in creation, Son in redemption, and Holy Spirit in regeneration.
The ...
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2000/february7/5.58.html