Justin Bieber Slams ‘Pedestal Pastors’ While Talking up Heretic
Justin Bieber recently granted a long-form interview to Zach Baron of GQ Magazine, spending nearly the whole thing talking about his faith and beliefs and the transition from the world’s biggest musical artist whose life was in shambles, to a stable, growing family man and husband. A few things worth highlighting.
On his marriage. How his wife is a “strong, consistent, stabilizing force in his life,” and how it has grounded him.
“The first year of marriage was really tough, because there was a lot, going back to the trauma stuff. There was just lack of trust. There was all these things that you don’t want to admit to the person that you’re with, because it’s scary. You don’t want to scare them off by saying, ‘I’m scared.’ ”
…[now] we’re just creating these moments for us as a couple, as a family, that we’re building these memories. And it’s beautiful that we have that to look forward to. Before, I didn’t have that to look forward to in my life. My home life was unstable. Like, my home life was not existing. I didn’t have a significant other. I didn’t have someone to love. I didn’t have someone to pour into. But now I have that.”
On how he relates to God, the call on his life, and how he talks to the Lord.
“He is grace. Every time we mess up, He’s picking us back up every single time. That’s how I view it. And so it’s like, ‘I made a mistake. I won’t dwell in it. I don’t sit in shame. But it actually makes me want to do better.’
…my goal isn’t to try and persuade anybody to believe in what I believe or condemn anybody for not believing what I believe. If it can help someone, great. If someone’s like, ‘Hey, I don’t believe that. I don’t think that’s true,’ by all means, that’s their prerogative.”
…I came to a place where I just was like, ‘God, if you’re real, I need you to help me, because I can’t do this on my own. Like, I’m struggling so hard. Every decision I make is out of my own selfish ego.’ So I’m just like, ‘What is it that you want from me? You put all these desires in my heart for me to sing and perform and to make music—where are these coming from? Why is this in my heart? What do you want me to do with it? What’s the point? What is the point of everything? What is the point of me being on this planet?’ ”…I just kept trusting what He said and what He’s saying to me . And I just believe He speaks to me. It’s not audible. I don’t hear His audible voice. I don’t know if people do. I know people have said it, and in the Bible it talks about that, but I just never heard it. It’s more like nudges: Don’t do this. Or: Set these boundaries.”
On pastors who put themselves on pedestals and his attraction to new pastor Judah Smith, and why he trusts him.
“I think so many pastors put themselves on this pedestal. And it’s basically, church can be surrounded around the man, the pastor, the guy, and it’s like, ‘This guy has this ultimate relationship with God that we all want but we can’t get because we’re not this guy.’ That’s not the reality, though. The reality is, every human being has the same access to God.”
[Judah Smith] put our relationship first…[Bieber explains that he noticed Smith’s family seemed to care for one another] [That] was something I always dreamed of because my family was broken. My whole life, I had a broken family. And so I was just attracted to a family that eats dinners together, laughs together, talks together.”
Bieber is active on social media making consistent professions of faith, inviting a variety of pastors on to give the gospel. He will frequently talk about Jesus and his relationship with him, what parts of the bible he and his wife Hailey are reading, what he learned from a sermon, and will pray with his tens of millions of followers. He is a member of Hillsong Choir and has led worship at pal Judah’s Smith Churchome, as well as has preached from the pulpit.
Pastor Judah Smith lead Churchome, a hip-to-be-cool, celebrity-endorsed 10,000 member megachurch that recently cemented their theological obliviousness by bringing on Trinity-denying Modalist T. D. Jakes as a Board Member of their congregation.
The Seattle-based church, spread across its five locations in Washington State and California, joins other celebrity preachers like now-disgraced Carl Lentz and Elevation Church’s Steven Furtick in having very close ties with the “Jesus is a manifestation of God” Pentecostal Bishop.
By way of a brief profile, the Smiths are about as seeker-sensitive and biblically compromised as they come. They live in a multi-million dollar home and have a penchant for Gucci luxury clothes, where a single outfit can cost upwards of $ 5000$. They count Justin Bieber as one of their members and let him occasionally lead worship, with theoerotic songs like Reckless Love being a mainstay.
He frequently tweets stupid, unbiblical things like this, clearly having no knowledge of Acts 10:38, 2 Corinthians 5:10, John 5:22, 27, and other scriptures.
He is, by all accounts, emblematic of the skinny-jeans-wearing soyboy pastors that breed effemininity and are a blight on the church today.
As for where the couple stands on abortion and LGBT issues, more unbiblical, cagey, waffling garbage abounds. In a long-form article in Marie Claire that is worth the read, writer Jennifer Swann quickly zeroes in on the ethos of the couple, explaining they are as squishy as one can be.
We pray that Bieber leaves that church and find one where the scriptures and sound theology are actually taught.
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Romans 10: 14-17
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
until Bieber ‘sells all he has’ and it is no longer about ‘Beiber’ – but living a humble life for Jesus Christ – then I’ll maybe consider he has been touched by the living God. But, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and looks like one, it is still a duck, no matter how much christianese one will talk.
“celebrity endorsed church” really tells me all I need to know