Crazy Faith

Crazy Faith: It is only Crazy Until it Happens is the second book of Michael Todd, pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The book’s premise is that God has big crazy plans for His children and that we must trust Him and take a leap of faith if we want to experience His promises. And this book is a blueprint on how to live in crazy faith. (See my review of his first book, Relationship Goals here.)

Each chapter corresponds to a step of crazy faith. They are Baby Faith, Maybe Faith, Waiting Faith, Wavy Faith, Lazy Faith, Trading Faith, Fugazi Faith, Stating Faith, Fading Faith, and Saving Faith. In this book, Todd uses a mix of personal and biblical stories to teach and illustrate the power of crazy faith. I appreciate his zeal for God and wanting to live a life of faith as Scripture commands.

But unfortunately, that is the only positive thing I can say about this book. For a book about faith, Crazy Faith has very little Scripture (especially those that talks about faith). The book focuses more on this author’s testimony than the author and finisher of our faith—Jesus Christ. Furthermore, this book is laden with false teachings and unbiblical notions.  Here are a few of them.

“Crazy faith”

The most glaring issue with this book is the author’s definition and application of faith. Todd defines faith as “trust in something you cannot explicitly prove.” And crazy faith is “having thoughts and actions that lack reason but trusting fully in what you cannot explicitly prove.” This is not entirely biblical, as faith in the Bible means trusting Christ based on divine assurance and confidence. The Bible never equates having faith with lacking reason or being crazy.

More concerning, though, isn’t how Todd defines faith, but what he has faith for. He rightly says that faith is based on God, not us or things. But the “crazy faith” Todd refers to throughout this book isn’t penitent faith unto salvation but faith for wealth and health.

For instance, at the beginning of the book, he proposes an exercise to identify our level of faith in different areas and includes things like career goals, relationships, hopes, dreams, etc. We are supposed to believe that God has miracles in these areas and that we must have faith they will come to pass. When the Bible speaks of faith, however, it is first and foremost believing in the name of the Son of God for salvation. Not material things.

Eisegesis

Todd repeatedly adds things to Scripture that aren’t there and forces it to mean something it doesn’t say. He even writes, “Christians need to learn to read between the lines to hear what the Bible doesn’t say.”  Todd effectively follows his own advice and says things the Bible doesn’t. Take, for example, the story of Jesus healing a paralytic in Luke 5:17-26.

In this story, four men took a paralytic man to Jesus for healing and went through the roof when they couldn’t get through the door. The Bible doesn’t give details about these four men, like their relationship, motif, etc. But Todd takes it upon himself to fill in the blanks and uses his ideas to teach. So when Jesus told the paralytic to take up his bed and walk, Todd implies the paralytic had a choice to have faith. Todd says, “Romey [the name he gave the paralytic] has a choice; depend on his own understanding (“my body is paralyzed; I don’t know if I can”) or trust in the LORD.” So Jesus made “an illogical request,” and the paralytic had to decide to stand up in crazy faith or not.

But that isn’t how the story goes in the Bible. Scripture says the man was immediately healed and stood up at once. He didn’t get on his feet in crazy faith; Jesus already healed him.

Furthermore, Todd analyzes details of little importance to the story and turns them into grand spiritual lessons for all believers. For instance, he says Jesus told the man to pick up his mat because it was his testimony. Consequently, we should always give our testimony. Of course, all of these are not said or implied in the story; Todd adds these things for his benefit. He ignores the most fundamental principle of hermeneutics: interpreting Scripture as the author intended and the original audience would have understood it.

Narcissism

Todd not only reads into Scripture, but he also reads us into it and makes every story about us. Whenever he uses biblical stories for illustration, Todd always identifies us with the characters and turns the story into a parable for our lives. For example, in the paralytic story, we are the friends who must have an active faith; in the story of Jesus walking on water, we are Peter. Jesus is calling us to accomplish something great, and we must step out of the boat in crazy faith and experience our miracle. And so on.

This is a terrible way of reading Scripture. The Bible is not about us!  We are not supposed to read the Bible and insert ourselves in it; instead, we must see how it points to Jesus Christ (John 5:39). He is the main character, and the Bible is about Him.

Todd’s narcissism goes beyond reading himself into the Bible. As you can tell from the cover, this book is mostly about him. Almost every chapter feature his accomplishment in becoming a megachurch pastor despite not having a seminary degree, buying his new church venue, etc. He does credit God for doing all this but takes it too far by comparing it to the glorious resurrection of Christ.

In chapter 7, he says, “Mortal men don’t get crucified, lay dead and wrapped in a sealed tomb, and three days later pop out with the keys to death a, hell, and the grave like it’s just another day at the office. But with Jesus, God made an exception.” He then says God also made an exception with him and urges us to believe we are also the exception. I don’t know which is worst, Todd reducing the gospel as just “an exception,” or putting us at the same level with Christ.

In Todd’s worldview, we are at the center of the universe, and God is a supporting character whose job is to give us what he wants. Todd says, “While you build your relationship with God, work on your craft, and pump up your faith behind the scenes, God is building a platform with your name on it.”

How self-centered and prideful is this? God is not building our platform. He is building His Kingdom for His glory alone.

Scripture used out of context

Unsurprisingly, Todd also uses Scriptures out of context. For instance, he uses Matthew 18:20, which says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them,” to teach that when Christians get together and agree in faith for a miracle, Jesus will show up. But the context of Matthew 18:20 is church discipline. As mentioned earlier, Todd claims that God is building our platform and uses 1 Corinthians 3:6, which says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” This text refers to spiritual growth, not a blanket promise for fame.

Todd even partially quotes Scripture to twist its meaning. In chapter 9, he says we must make faith-filled declarations to hear them and build our faith. His text is Romans 10:17, which says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” But Todd conveniently left out “through the word of Christ,” because this text is about having true penitent faith from hearing the gospel, not believing in a job promotion by making personal declarations.

Prosperity gospel

The thesis of this book is that God has a big crazy miracle for you. And if you have enough faith to believe in the impossible, God will give you what you want. He says, “How would you feel if I told you that you could walk out of God’s store with everything you have faith for?” This is really just prosperity theology, the idea that God will always give us health and wealth if we have faith in him. In fact, Todd’s church affirms this on their website. They say, “We believe that, as part of Christ’s work of salvation, it is the Father’s will for believers to become whole, healthy, and successful in all areas of life.” This is unbiblical.

The Bible doesn’t teach that God always wants us to be healthy and wealthy on this side of eternity or that we will always get what we ask for if we have crazy faith. God promises that if we repent of our sins and believe in the name of  His Son, we will have eternal life. He also promises that we will have tribulations in this world and suffer for His sake.

Word of faith

There are also many Word of Faith teachings in this book (which isn’t surprising as it usually goes with the prosperity gospel). Word of Faith is the belief that our words have the power to speak God’s promises (mainly health and wealth) into existence. The premise behind this teaching is that, since God’s word has power, and we are created in God’s image, our words also have power.

Todd affirms this in chapter 9 of the book and says, “When you start saying what you’re believing God out loud, it puts a demand on heaven and establishes a higher level of accountability with anyone who hears you say…but until you let it escape your mouth, it won’t have as much power.” And “Words have creative power-and God chose to give that same power to you and me.” He doesn’t provide any Scriptural basis for this because they are none.

God’s words indeed have the power to create things; however, we do not have the same privilege. The Bible never says that we have the same creative power with words as God. Nor does it say that things will happen if we declare and decree them. Lamentations 3:37 even says, “Who has spoken, and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?”

I recommend watching American Gospel for a thorough refutation of the Prosperity Gospel and Word of Faith.

Extra-biblical revelation

Lastly, Todd promotes extra-biblical revelations. He says, “all of us receive instructions from God in some form or fashion,” and mentions a few examples when God spoke to him outside the Bible. This is unbiblical as well. God speaks to us through the Bible (Hebrews 1:1-2), and no Scripture affirms that we should expect to hear from God outside it. We receive our instructions from the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The idea that God speaks to us through outside Scripture is not only unbiblical but also dangerous.

It causes Todd to say that no one can ever be 100% sure they hear from God. It is “almost always a maybe,” and as such, we only need to have faith at 51%. Scripture doesn’t teach us to have 51% percent faith or live life always wondering if we hear from God. This scenario only happens when we stray away from the sure word of God and venture into the realm of subjective extra-biblical revelations. In that case, you will never indeed be sure that God is speaking to you, and you undoubtedly need to be crazy to follow through with whatever you think that God is telling you. But when you read Scripture, you can be 100% sure God is speaking to you, and obeying Him is not illogical or crazy. 

Furthermore, God is not the author of confusion. When He speaks, it is unmistakable and authoritative. There is no instance in Scripture where God spoke, and people wondered whether they actually heard from God. Abraham did not bound his son on an altar for sacrifice because he thought God might have told him so.

Conclusion

There are many other theological issues with Crazy Faith, but I got tired of highlighting them because there were so many. Todd says in this book that he has never been to seminary or studied theology, and it really shows. This book is filled with false teachings, unbiblical statements, narcissism, and Scripture twisting. His different stages of faith are not supported by Scripture and, frankly, a bit silly.

I absolutely do not recommend this book nor any teaching that comes from Michael Todd. It is my sincere hope that he will repent and learn to handle the Word of God rightly. Until then, mark and avoid him.

I received an ARC from the publisher, and this is my honest review.

  Grace and peace to you!