Updated June 6, 2006 (first published September 11, 2001) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) –

Thomas D. Jakes, known popularly as T.D., is a Church of God in Christ conference speaker and pastor of the 26,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas. His book “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” has sold millions of copies. He has been nominated for a Grammy for his music and has signed a contract with Hallmark for a line of greeting cards.

This dynamic, spell-binding speaker grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, and was raised Baptist but switched to Pentecostal after “speaking in tongues” at a storefront Apostolic church. He was married in 1980 and has twin sons. His far-flung itinerant preaching ministry was based for many years in West Virginia, but in 1996 he moved to Texas and founded the Potter’s House, purchasing property formerly belong to W.V. Grant’s Eagle’s Nest Family Church for $3.2 million.

For the 25th anniversary of Jake’s ministry in 2001, Time magazine featured him on its cover and called him “America’s Best Preacher.” The Time article absolutely resonates in praise for Jakes: “He is a virtuoso, a prodigy. The only thing more exhilarating than the style of T.D. Jakes’ sermons is their rigor and compassion...It’s Oprah-in-a-pulpit.” The article goes on to observe that Jake’s “enthusiasts can adopt an awed tone not unlike acolytes of bebop jazz in the ‘50s or grunge in the early 1990s.”

Such praise from a worldly magazine that regularly mocks the things of Christ and challenges the authority of the Bible sends up strong warning signals for Bible believers, because Jesus Christ said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). When this wicked world loves a preacher, something is wrong! In Jakes’ case, it is not too difficult to understand his popularity. He preaches a positive, self-esteem-building message.

Jakes holds the positive-only, avoid-controversy, judge-not New Evangelical philosophy. Like New Evangelicals in general, Jakes says many good things. He can encourage discouraged women to trust in God. He can challenge selfish fathers to be the committed family men they ought to be. He can bring interesting and challenging things out of his Scripture texts. He preaches many good things. The chief problem with T.D. Jakes and every other New Evangelical is not the error that he teaches but the truth that he neglects. There are so many biblical responsibilities that he will never deal with, such as separation and sacrifice. His preaching is in generalities. He does not preach plainly and specifically against many of the sins that are rampant among professing Christians in America.

In an interview with Charisma magazine, December 16, 1996, Jakes was asked what he believes about women as pastors. He replied: “I try to avoid setting myself up as a judge to tell anybody what God did or did not call them to do. There are many women who are celebrated as ministers: Marilyn Hickey, Joyce Meyer, Jackie McCullough, Dr. Iona Locke, Ernestine Reems and Iverna Tompkins. Many women are making a contribution to the body of Christ.” Thus, in regard to the hard issues, T.D. Jakes is a fence-straddler. In spite of the clear teaching of the Word of God, in spite of the fact that the apostle Paul solemnly forbade women to preach or usurp authority over men (1 Tim 2:12), Jakes refuses to judge whether it is right or wrong for a woman to be a pastor. He refuses to enter into controversy and risk destroying his popularity. Instead of basing his answer on the Word of God, he bases it on pragmatism. He points to women who appear to be successful in the ministry. In other words, if it works, it must be right.

Jakes is completely ecumenical. He often speaks at Promise Keepers and other ecumenical forums. He supports heretics like Robert Schuller.

Jakes appears with and supports the most radical of the Charismatics today, including Paul and Jan Crouch and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. This is the network that has helped popularize such unscriptural practices and phenomena as hysterical laughing, spirit slaying, christian rock & roll, healing in the atonement, and evangelical Catholicism.

Jakes practices the unscriptural and dangerous “spirit slaying,” whereby people are knocked to the floor, allegedly by the Holy Spirit.

In August 1995, Jakes appeared at Oral Roberts University with a lineup of some of the biggest names in the Word-faith movement, including R.W. Schambach, Lester Sumrall, and T.L. Osborn. One of Jakes’ fellow speakers at that conference was Rodney Howard-Browne, who blasphemously calls himself the “Holy Ghost bartender” because of the strange drunkenness that has manifested during his meetings.

Jakes believes in the prosperity gospel. Like many of the Trinity Broadcasting Network preachers, Jakes falsely claims that Jesus was rich and that God wants us to be rich, too. He and his wife live in a $1.7 million mansion. When raising funds for the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Jakes uses the unscriptural prosperity gospel message that has worked so well for many of the Pentecostals. He told the TBN audience that if they give to TBN, God will give them prosperity in everything, money, marriage, romance, etc.

I saw Jakes preaching on the television a few weeks ago, and right in the midst of his preaching he began babbling away in mutterings he called “tongues.” In direct disobedience to the Bible, there was not even an attempt to interpret the “tongues.”