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‘Blasphemous!’—Jesse Duplantis’ Christmas Sermon Draws Accusations of Heresy

By Jessica Lea
blasphemous duplantis sermon
In a video published to social media on December 26, 2022, televangelist Jesse Duplantis delivers his Christmas sermon. (Video screengrab)

Prosperity gospel preacher Jesse Duplantis recently applied the text of Isaiah 9:6, an Old Testament passage often quoted during the Christmas season as a prophecy about Jesus, in a way that some people took as blasphemous. 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders,” says Isaiah 9:6. “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

“Where is the government now?” asked Duplantis in his sermon, “The Gift That Jesus Gave To His Father,” which was published to social media Dec. 26. “It’s on us. The government of the world is on mankind, and because we’re made in God’s image and in God’s likeness, you can call us Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Christ in us, the Everlasting Father, whoo! The Prince of Peace. That’s what it means to be the gift that Jesus gave to you.”

Jesse Duplantis: We Are Jesus’ Gift to God

Jesse Duplantis is a Word of Faith preacher based out of Destrehan, Louisiana, who runs Jesse Duplantis Ministries (JDM) and is known for promoting a prosperity gospelDuplantis made headlines in 2018 for asking his supporters to donate money so that his ministry could afford a $54 million private jet—the preacher’s fourth one. Duplantis said the reason he needed the jet was to continue his ministry and spread the gospel.

In 2021, Duplantis appeared in a four-day fundraising event on Kenneth Copeland’s VICTORY Channel. During the event, Duplantis mentioned that he is a multi-millionaire and said that viewers could speed the return of Jesus by donating money. “I honestly believe this,” he said, “that the reason why Jesus hadn’t come is because people aren’t giving the way God told them to give.”

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In his Dec. 26 sermon, which appears to have been previously recorded at Covenant Church, an outreach of JDM, Duplantis wore a Christmas bow to illustrate his main point that Jesus gave people (presumably believers) as a gift to God the Father. 

As he began the sermon, Duplantis told the congregation that God had told him to preach “the December partner letter.” According to the JDM website, “partners” are people who “regularly pray and sow financial seeds” into the ministry. Partners receive from Duplantis a monthly letter “filled with exactly what God has put on his heart to share with his Partners.”

Duplantis explained that before God created the world, he created angels in heaven—“I call it ‘Planet Heaven’”—and “many, many servants.” The members of the Trinity had a “business meeting” to discuss the creation of humanity and decided to give people free will, through which sin came into the world. During this discussion, God said he could never “touch sin,” and the Holy Spirit said the same. Jesus then “took over the meeting” and offered to die to save all people. 

Duplantis, who acknowledged that John 3:16 says God gave Jesus to save mankind, told church members that Jesus had been waiting for eternity to give God a gift and that he finally realized what it was. Jesus decided to “turn this thing around” and give people back to God the Father as gifts, said the preacher. “So when you get born again, you a baby Christian and Jesus takes you upstairs and says, ‘Father, what do you think?’…And the Father says, ‘Wow, they look just like you, Jesus.’” Later in his sermon, Duplantis compared the way God the Father feels about Christians to the way human parents often see their children as precious gifts.>

The preacher emphasized more than once that people have inherent worth because they are made in God’s image. He told his church members that when they feel unworthy, they should “put on your bow” and remember they are Jesus’ gift to God. 

Being Jesus’ gift to God enables us to “act like God,” said Duplantis, quoting Ephesians 5:1. “People get irritated when we act like God, but if we don’t, then we’re acting like somebody else.” He continued, “That’s why I live here on earth like I’d be in heaven. I truly am living the ‘Our Father’ prayer.” As examples, Duplantis pointed out that in heaven, there is no debt, jealousy, envy, strife, or age. “So how come I cannot live here, because I am a gift that Jesus gave to his father, like when I get there physically?” he asked. 

Later, Duplantis implied that having mansions in heaven signifies the wealth we can have on earth. He said, “People that are against prosperity don’t know the Word.” He also addressed physical health, conceding that people do get sick and feel ill, but said that their illnesses nevertheless do not have to affect them. Said Duplantis, “If you want to go to heaven, you can die healthy because death and life’s in the power of the tongue.”

Discussion on Duplantis’ sermon online centers on a clip where he quotes Isaiah 9:6. While the preacher’s overall point seemed to be that God’s children will follow his example in some sense, it was unclear what that behavior entails, and a number of people took his wording as heretical. 

“Why is Biblical hermeneutics (the study of the methodological principles of interpretation) so important?” tweeted user Keith Walker. “Because improper hermeneutics leads to heresy. Jesse Duplantis is exhibit A. Listen to how he takes verses that apply to Jesus and attributes them to us. Blasphemous!” Pastor and apologetics writer Shane Idleman also tweeted about Duplantis’ sermon, commenting, “Blasphemy Alert!”

ChurchLeaders has reached out to Jesse Duplantis Ministries for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply. 

This article originally appeared at ChurchLeaders.com

Jessica Lea is a content editor for ChurchLeaders.com and the producer of The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. 

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26 Responses

  1. I love reading about these grifters obtaining large funds from the lemmings only to make these satanic people grow rich and do nothing to spread the word of god. Keep trying to buy your way to heaven people under the foolish belief these satanic idols actually are doing god’s work and you’re helping.

  2. Duplantis and Copeland make me so angry, they are leading people to eternal damnation. I can’t imagine the horror they will face on judgement day.

  3. These people that are taking advantage of people will pay the ultimate price. People are searching for the truth and are responding to the lies of these preachers. I wonder if we are failing as Christians by not ministering to people who are searching for help. God clearly says these leeches will be judged.

  4. Two thoughts:

    1. ) Some of the stuff he says, like the trinity having a business meeting, is so goofy that I can’t help but laugh when I read about it, even though it’s ultimately not funny.

    2.) The brazenness of the grifting of guys like this is astounding to me. How can anyone hear statements about Jesus not returning because people don’t give enough or how he needs a private jet to spread the gospel, and not immediately see it as the transparent manipulation it is?

    1. Come on now my brethren! Don’t you think “coin man” Dave Ramsey must have been at that Trinity business meeting? You know, the kind hearted soul who loves to tell people “That was a stupid decision.”

    2. I think putting this guy, John MacArthur, and Bart Ehrman together on a deserted island would make some great reality TV.

      1. Haha. Hilarious idea. I think this guy and MacArthur might cancel each other out of existence if they got too close together, like matter and anti-matter.

  5. If you think this is twisting scripture, see if you can dig up his “exposition” of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew!

  6. # 1,any pastor (s) that go along with the XXX-mas LIE,says enough about them anyway,#2,they should never beg for $,if 1 has it to give,they would. Alot of them are false teachers out for $ & leading the sheep astray

  7. So many false shepherds/teachers/prophets – antichrists in disguise as Christians. The LORD is revealing the truth and removing the tares from the wheat. Praise His Holy Name!
    TY Julie for getting the truth out!

    1. I still blame the people who attend and never challenge and keep dumping their money to these grifters. If they actually listened to god vs man he would gladly open their eyes and hearts to these satanic evil creatures.

  8. I know some preacher men
    Men with some business plans
    And I think this must be said
    They’re making millions
    Selling Jesus
    They take but never give
    And all of their possessions
    Will all go down in flames
    When they stand before a God
    Who never knew their names.

  9. Thanks to Jessica Lea for covering this so well for the Roys Report. The damage this type of theology does to people is real, it gives people false hope in a God that they believe only cares about the American Gospel of being prosperous and successful. If only people like Copeland and Duplantis could be charged with fraud for scamming innocent people.

  10. ““Why is Biblical hermeneutics (the study of the methodological principles of interpretation) so important?” tweeted user Keith Walker. “Because improper hermeneutics leads to heresy. …”
    I am in no way am drawn into following JD. However, I don’t think that he is in any way constrained by the associated accusations of heresy and hermeneutic impropriety.
    What JD has is a hermetic that he is able to make work for him; and beyond that he has secured followers across working that hermetic. Others who make use of an alternate hermetic, can claim heresy and hermeneutic impropriety (specifically, ‘wrong’ interpretation of Biblical script). The accusations are too broad brush. To constrain JD and his use of his hermetic, we actually have to get in to the granular detail of his hermetic working. We don’t begin with any certainty that our own hermetic and our own hermeneutic methodology is right and JD’s is wrong; rather we there simply end with a stand-off.

  11. I can always depend on the Word of Faith movement to offer the church bizarre and heretical interpretations of the Bible often done with the intention of fleecing the flock.

  12. These monsters are expected by any Christian familiar with the Bible! Jesus said many will come in my name. They will be judged so let them enjoy their temporary lusts as they will pay the ultimate price God puts on them. Thank you ‘Jessica Lea’ for reporting on these Christian imitators!

    The disciples had no money or spare clothing & were sent out two by two to spread the Gospel to say that money is necessary for that mission is blasphemous & unfaithful to our precious God!

  13. the teachers and admin that protect boys identifying as girls and destroying girl sports or using girls’ bathrooms. On 01/01/2023 google all the crimes in ILL you can commit and no bail. open borders. dumping tons of money into the Ukraine for something that is not our business to get involved in. And where are the churches? crickets. Good luck my brothers and sisters. None of this is by accident. IF every mega church started regular protests think of all that power to influence their local community’s. But nope. The churches have historically been the power behind changes.

  14. It sure would be refreshing to hear a preacher who solemnly and ugently talks about tithing and planting seeds to even suggest that you could give to a ministry other than their own. What a contrast to George Muller from the 1800s who started a hospital and orphanages that cared for hundreds of children, and yet he never publicly appealed for money. He prayed earnestly and counted it a matter of faith, and never had any lack.

  15. duplantis, copeland and everyone on that network are heretics. they preach a false gospel and sadly are leading many astray.

  16. Why is this heretical or blasphemous. It is biblical. Jesus himself said, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I SAID, “YOU ARE GODS” ‘? John_10:35 Read the rest in context. Paul said “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV). Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48 NKJV); And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: (John 17:22 NKJV) ++Its what God Said++

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