T.D. JAKES:

T.D. JAKES: (A BIGGER PROBLEM THAN THE RUMORS) T.D. Jakes doesn’t need a Diddy rumor to make the Wolves in Wool album. His theology already gives us plenty to examine. For decades, Jakes built one of the largest religious platforms in America. The Potter’s House grew into a congregation numbering in the tens of thousands while Jakes became a preacher, author, filmmaker, businessman and television personality with international influence. In July 2025, he formally handed senior pastoral leadership to his daughter Sarah Jakes Roberts and son-in-law Touré Roberts, although he remains founding pastor and spiritual overseer. With that kind of influence comes enormous responsibility. “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” James 3:1 KJV So forget celebrity. What does the man teach? That question gets uncomfortable quickly. THE GODHEAD PROBLEM: Jakes came out of Oneness Pentecostalism. Historic Oneness theology rejects the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Instead of one God eternally existing as three distinct Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, modalism teaches essentially one divine Person appearing or operating through different manifestations. For years, Jakes used exactly that kind of language. Even The Potter’s House belief statement has described God as eternally existing in three “manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” That isn’t a meaningless vocabulary disagreement. Father, Son and Holy Ghost aren’t three costumes God puts on. At Jesus’ baptism, the Son is standing in the water, the Spirit descends upon Him, and the Father speaks from heaven. Matthew 3:16–17 All three simultaneously. Jesus later prayed: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:5 KJV The Son wasn’t talking to Himself in another mode. Jakes was confronted directly about this in 2012. To his credit, he said his understanding had changed and verbally affirmed “one God, three Persons.” Yet during the same discussion he expressed discomfort with the word persons and defended his continued use of manifestations. Christian theologians have debated ever since whether that represented a genuine departure from modalism or merely an ambiguous reformulation of it. Here’s my problem. If you’ve spent decades teaching millions of people about God and somebody needs a theological archaeological dig to determine whether you believe the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are actually distinct Persons, something has gone badly wrong. The Trinity isn’t obscure seminary trivia. It’s Christianity 101. THEN THERE’S THE MONEY: Jakes has rejected the label “prosperity preacher.” Fine. I don’t care much about labels either. I care about what gets preached. An official Potter’s House sermon description for “When God Is Up To Something” tells listeners: “Get ready because God is about to prosper you in a way you never saw coming!” Then comes the financial invitation: “Attach your seed to this anointing, sow into good soil!” Complete with instructions for texting the ministry a dollar amount. Another official sermon, “Timing Is Everything,” uses seed, harvest and blessing language and again ends with: “Attach your seed to this anointing; sow into good soil!” Their giving language has also referred to donations as “your seed.” Now open the New Testament. When Paul instructed believers about giving, he didn’t sell access to an anointing. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7 KJV Giving is biblical. Supporting ministry is biblical. Helping the poor is biblical. Turning an offering into spiritual seed language attached to an “anointing” and an anticipated harvest deserves considerably more scrutiny. Jesus never told a widow to text $50 to unlock one. THE DIDDY CONNECTION: Now we can talk about Sean Combs without making things up. Jakes and Combs genuinely had a relationship. Jakes partnered with Combs’ REVOLT network to distribute “Kingdom Culture with T.D. Jakes.” Jakes has also acknowledged stopping by one of Combs’ birthday celebrations. He says it was during the daytime, staff accompanied him, and he stayed only briefly. Then Jakes’ name appeared in producer Rodney Jones’ federal lawsuit against Combs. Read carefully. The lawsuit does not accuse Jakes of participating in Combs’ alleged sexual misconduct. Jones instead alleged that Combs discussed using his relationship with Jakes to “soften the impact on his public image” following Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit. That’s worth discussing. It isn’t proof Jakes knew what Combs was allegedly doing. It certainly isn’t proof Jakes participated. It does suggest Combs considered his association with one of America’s most famous preachers valuable enough to potentially help rehabilitate his public image. There’s a lesson there about celebrity Christianity whether Jakes did anything wrong or not. When pastors become brands, access to the pastor becomes social currency. THEN CAME THE OTHER ALLEGATIONS: There are serious allegations against Jakes unrelated to the Diddy lawsuit. Duane Youngblood publicly accused Jakes of an attempted sexual encounter decades ago. His brother Richard later made a separate allegation in a sworn court filing. Jakes categorically denied the accusations and sued Duane Youngblood for defamation. That litigation became ugly. Youngblood’s attorney was reprimanded after filings contained fabricated quotations and misrepresented case law. Eventually, in October 2025, the parties jointly dismissed Jakes’ defamation case without prejudice. That means something important. The court never decided whether the underlying sexual allegations were true or false. There was no public judicial finding establishing them. So I’m not going to do what social media loves to do and pronounce a man guilty because somebody made an accusation. Scripture doesn’t give us that liberty. “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity...” Deuteronomy 19:15 KJV The accusations can be acknowledged. They cannot honestly be presented as established fact. And frankly, we don’t need them. The theological record gives us plenty to examine. THE SUCCESSION TELLS US SOMETHING TOO: When Jakes stepped away from the senior pastor position, leadership passed to his daughter Sarah Jakes Roberts and her husband as co-senior pastors. That brings us right back to Scripture. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man...” 1 Timothy 2:12 KJV Modern evangelicalism can perform every linguistic gymnastics routine imaginable around that verse. Paul still wrote it. And immediately afterward, he grounds his argument in creation rather than first-century Roman culture. SO HERE’S MY PROBLEM WITH T.D. JAKES: I don’t need to know what happened at Diddy’s house. I don’t need TikTok rumors, fake screenshots, AI videos or gossip about his family. Give me a Bible and his own ministry archive. There’s a decades-long history of ambiguity surrounding the Trinity. There are prosperity-flavored sermons followed by invitations to “attach your seed to this anointing.” There’s a massive celebrity ministry intertwined with entertainment culture. And the church has now been entrusted to a female co-senior pastor despite what I believe is Paul’s plain instruction concerning pastoral teaching authority. That’s enough for discernment. Jesus warned us: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matthew 7:15 KJV The wolf doesn’t need horns. Sometimes he has a microphone, a television contract, a bestselling book and thirty thousand people calling him Bishop. Test the preacher by the Book, because the size of the platform has never been God’s definition of truth. #MoreJoyMinistries