Is this teaching biblical?
Steven Furtick posted that 'following Jesus doesn't change you into something else, it reveals who you've been all along.' He deleted the post after massive backlash, but the damage to his credibility remains. This statement denies the foundational biblical truth that salvation makes us a NEW creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). What we 'were all along' was dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), enemies of God (Romans 5:10), and children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Owen Strachan responded: 'Truly following Jesus turns you into nothing less than a new creation' and warned: 'Do not come within 50 country miles of this man's false teaching.'
What did Steven Furtick say?
"Following Jesus doesn't change you into something else, it reveals who you've been all along."
Speaker: Steven Furtick
Source: Facebook post, October 2021 (deleted after massive backlash)
What does Scripture actually teach?
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
— NKJV
Paul could not be clearer: believers are a NEW creation. Old things have PASSED AWAY. All things have become NEW. Furtick's claim that Jesus merely 'reveals who you've been all along' is a direct contradiction of this verse. We were not secretly good all along — we were dead, and God made us alive.
Ephesians 2:1-3
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world... and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
— NKJV
What we 'were all along' was dead in sin and children of wrath by nature. If following Jesus merely reveals this, that would be terrifying, not comforting. The gospel is not self-discovery — it is resurrection from spiritual death.
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