David Platt discernment bundle: “The Real David Platt” new film, Platt’s wokeness, Isa dreams, Radical, and more

By Elizabeth Prata

What is discernment?

Discernment is a gift and a skill. It is a gift when it is given to certain people, as listed in 1 Corinthians 12-10:

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: (KJV. underline mine)

and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. (NASB).

It’s a skill ALL Christians have and should train constantly, as in Hebrews 5:14,

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (NASB)

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (ESV).

How I approach utilizing discernment

I have a “three-item” standard. In discernment work, we do not jump at the least little thing a public teacher or local pastor says. We use common sense, review the bulk of a ministry for context, and wait, watching alertly but remaining self-controlled and measured. We overlook something he or she said that’s the equivalent of a typo.

But if we see or hear of something bigger, something that can be tested against scripture, we raise our discernment alarm. One item can be a mistake. Two times could be a coincidence. But three things, now that’s a pattern. Here is my standard:

1st piece of information: Discernment unease
2nd piece of information: Discernment alert
3rd piece of information: Discernment alarm, go public

And so it was with my assessment of David Platt through the years.

Who is David Platt?

Platt “was senior pastor at the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, from 2006 to 2014. At the time he was the youngest megachurch pastor in the United States. From 2014 to 2017, Platt was president of the International Mission Board. He became pastor-teacher at McLean Bible Church in 2017. He is the author of the 2010 New York Times Best Seller Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.” (Wikipedia)

#1- Discernment unease: Radical (2010-2012)

Radical was published in 2010. It hit conservative churches like a bomb. It was a push-back against the lives Platt saw of conservative faithful settling into a consumerism complacency instead of daring to be uncomfortable and taking the faith to the lost in dangerous places. Book blurb:

It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily…

Kevin DeYoung at the time (2010) wrote a fair review of Radical. “Getting to the Root of Radical“. One of DeYoung’s concerns tracked with my main concern: “It is easy to stir people to action by relating how little everyone else has and how much we have in America, but we are not meant to have constant low-level guilt because we could be doing more.”

Low-level guilt was a thread throughout the book I assessed as emotional manipulation. I’ve also seen it coined as Platt’s “poverty gospel”.

Anyway, I was asked to teach through the 6-lesson Radical Small Group Study that came out in 2012. I was uncomfortable with Platt after having read his book Radical, but he’d quoted and used a lot of John MacArthur in the curriculum, so I stuck to the MacArthur side of things, thereby doing diligence to the trust the pastors had placed in me but also not upsetting my conscience. Going through the lessons raised my discernment radar on Platt. I thought the book was emotional, unbalanced, and in the end, dangerous.

#2- Discernment alert- Urbana15 (2015)

It was at InterVarsity’s 24th student missions conference in 2015 I could not believe what I was seeing. Urbana is “One of the largest student missions conferences in the world, …and combines gospel proclamation, dynamic worship, and missionary connection to launch students into a life of reaching people with the good news.”

Platt spoke there as he often does.

Platt preached of the unnamed woman in Matthew 26 who poured out her expensive perfume, and compared that to pouring out our heart to the Lord. He did mention sin in his sermon, but never uttered the word “repent”. He emotionally pleaded to the thousands assembled there to “decide for Christ”, and said ushers would come by and give them a glowstick which the attendees should break “if they had decided to follow Jesus for the first time”, knowing “that Jesus is worthy of their heart and life”.

He said to the impressionable youths to hold up the glowstick as a picture of their heart now poured out to Christ. There was a room they could go to where they’d be provided resources, and someone would pray with them to “celebrate God’s grace in you.”

No. No. No. One never declares a person saved on the spot. This leads to false conversions. Certainly not from a podium to a darkened room full of young people who’d just heard an emotional plea to follow Christ for the first time – but said plea was absent a plea for repentance of sins.

Urbana’s video of Platt at Urbana 15. Above, Youtube’s video of the same event. Youtube is convenient because it has the transcript.

Platt said for the kids to hold up their glowsticks in order to “express affection, adoration, longing, and love for Christ.” Emotional terms. But what about the plea for repentance, holy fear, submission, confession? All these terms were absent from Platt’s decisional altar call.

Devastating. My radar on Platt went to Discernment alert.

#3- Discernment Alarm: Isa Dreams (2018)

In 2018, then-International Mission Board President David Platt delivered a 6-minute report to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting affirming Isa as Messiah and conversion through Muslim dreams. He told of some Muslims in a closed country having dreams of Isa and reporting that “This formerly Muslim couple is now a follower of Isa the Messiah.“

Isa is not the Messiah.

Interestingly, the SBC always fully published their leaders’ reports after the Annual Meeting, but in this particular case, the subsequent transcription published on the IMB website OMITS that Platt had stated that the couple is now following “Isa the Messiah”. Instead they transcribed that Platt said the couple is following “the Messiah”. Also interestingly, unlike in past years where the full report is published on Youtube or the IMB site, that year only a recap video was available. I transcribed his speech from the live video as it was being recorded by someone who was physically present, that’s how I know of the omission when I compared the two.

The following link of mine has the transcript. Blasphemy: Jesus is not Isa, Isa is not Jesus

Anyone who calls Isa a messiah of the faithful Christians is NOT to be followed. He is not credible. Done. Finito. It’s like calling Yahweh Molech or Dagon. This was the third nail in the discernment coffin for me as to who David Platt is. Why?

Isa is a made-up satanic entity in the Muslim tradition who is not deity, was never actually crucified, never died, where a substitute was placed on the cross to fool the Jews, (Suran al-Ma’idah 4:157), was raised to heaven alive (Surah al-Imran (3:55) and who will return to earth to worship the ‘one god’ [not Trinitarian] Allah and kill Christians, break the cross, remove jizyah (A Muslim tax) and rule (forcibly converted) Muslims “with justice.” (Surah al-Imran (3:55).

Critical Mass: Platt’s worst revealed, in new Documentary

A new documentary is coming out in 2024 in which a sneak peek of 10 minutes was published at Christmastime 2023.

The link includes describing Platt’s alleged leadership and financial malfeasance of McLean Bible church, allegations by former members and leaders. The film is called The Real David Platt.

It reportedly interviews many of McLean’s church members, elders, and leaders who have departed the church or who they say were forcibly excommunicated after having asked questions of finances and other issues. The interviewees describe their negative experiences there and outline their concerns and fear, often with tears for McLean church, its leaders, and fellow members.

It should be noted that the extended trailer does not include anyone representing from ‘the other side,’ that I saw, although I hope and pray in journalistic ethics the producers give McLean elders and Platt opportunity to speak in the full documentary. We do not know who is behind the documentary, although Jon Harris of Conversations That Matter (linked below) said he worked on intake of the interviewees for the film. He discusses the documentary below.

Conclusion

2010-2012- I’ve seen him off since the book Radical was published. I had concerns when asked to teach thru his Radical book curriculum in 2012 I saw more; and I disliked Platt’s guilt-tripping “poverty gospel”.

2015 when he touted 681 non-Christians made a decision of faith to follow Jesus, signified by glowsticks? at Urbana15

2018- Again in 2018 when Platt affirmed Isa dreams. I was done with Platt 6 years ago in 2018.

But for others, these indicators were not enough to call David Platt, evangelical darling, NYT bestselling author megachurch pastor, a wolf. However, by now at the end of 2023 there is plenty to show that Platt is not to be followed. There’s the Critical Race Theory/social justice/woke stances he spoke at public pulpits over the years, the lawsuit, and allegations of financial greed and authority misuse (internal documents supporting these allegations are promised to be shown in the full movie).

Sadly, we must strenuously urge people to stay away from his material, to repudiate his works, and if having promoted or followed him, to repent. Below are many other resources outlining issues with Platt, and this list is NOT comprehensive.

Further resources

The End Time: Blasphemy: Isa is not Jesus and Jesus is not Isa

Think on These Things: “An Evaluation Of Muslim Dreams & Visions Of Isa (Jesus)” “...one can rejoice in Muslim conversions while still expressing concerns about the messenger, especially since the Isa of Muslim dreams isn’t simply calling Muslims to believe in the Jesus of the Bible; he is calling them to believe in him (Isa).

Jon Harris at Conversations that Matter, discusses this new documentary The Real David Platt?

Here we have The Dissenter with a compilation of statements posted Aug 11, 2021 from Platt titled “David Platt’s Worst Woke Statements Ever“. They wrote: ” David Platt’s McLean Bible Church is currently in the midst of a crisis of division and disunity that was clearly caused by his unbiblical embrace of social justice, particularly, a worldly form of “racial justice,” as an outworking of the gospel. This montage is for the purpose of demonstrating that David Platt has clearly embraced all of this movement.”

Capstone Report: A chronological roundup of Platt’s woke trajectory. David Platt is Harming McLean Bible Church With Social Justice Theology

Evangelical Dark Web: David Platt’s Million-dollar Lawsuit