Biblical Preaching of the Jimmy Swaggart Cross

By Mark Swarbrick

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The Jimmy Swaggart Cross

The Jimmy Swaggart cross teaching has stirred debate for years. Swaggart urges believers to put their faith in “the cross alone,” but the Bible never mentions that. Instead, it calls us to put our faith in Christ. Scripture speaks of the preaching of the cross, meaning the message of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and alive in us. This article contrasts Swaggart’s “Message of the Cross” teaching with the true gospel, showing that the Bible points to a living relationship with Jesus, while the Swaggart cross teaching drifts into an abstract, metaphysical emphasis on an action or object.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says:

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Jimmy Swaggart has coined the phrase “The Message of the Cross,” turning it into a kind of proprietary slogan for his television ministry. But that phrase isn’t in the Bible — nor is the unbalanced doctrine he builds on it. The phrase “preaching of the cross” is in the Bible, so let’s explore what the biblical teaching of the cross really means.

The Bible makes it clear what the real preaching of the cross is and it is nothing like the Jimmy Swaggart cross. Jesus willingly became a man, suffered, died, and shed His blood to purchase our salvation. This was necessary to wash away our sins. Christ bore the punishment we deserved — the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, a truth the church has always upheld. It is not some new discovery of Jimmy Swaggart, as he suggests. From the beginning, Christian theologians have affirmed that the wages of sin is death, but Christ died in our place, rescuing us from eternal death. Furthermore, Scripture’s teaching on the cross is relational — emphasizing that Christ’s crucifixion draws us into a living relationship with Him:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Notice the focus of that verse. Who is the subject? Who is the object of our faith? It is Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us. We live by faith in the Son of God — not faith in the cross. The Bible never commands us to put faith in the cross. Swaggart has faced criticism for this distortion, so he sometimes tries to soften it for his television audience by saying, “faith in Jesus Christ and the cross.” That sounds close to the truth, but it still falls short of what the Bible actually teaches.

The Bible never says it like that. Not once does it ever say to put faith in the cross. And when you read about the  Jimmy Swaggart cross teaching in Swaggart’s books, he often drops the Jesus part. He just says to put your faith in the cross. He even capitalizes “Cross,” as though the cross were some sort of deity.

But the cross is not a person. The cross does not think, feel, love, or care. The cross cannot answer your prayers. The cross is not some extra person in the Godhead. God is not a quadrinity; He is a Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The cross is an action, what Jesus did. The cross is not God; the cross is a doctrine. Putting your faith in the cross is idolatry. Don’t put your faith in doctrine — put your faith in Jesus. The Jimmy Swaggart cross is not the same thing as the preaching of the cross found in Scripture.

The Jimmy Swaggart Cross Refuted

Some defenders of Jimmy Swaggart’s message argue that when he tells people to put their faith in the cross, he simply means faith in the action of Christ’s crucifixion. But Scripture never calls us to place faith in an action, however important that action may have been. Faith in an action remains abstract, detached, and impersonal. Faith in Christ is living, personal, and relational. The Bible calls us to trust in the Savior Himself — the One who loved us, gave Himself for us, rose again, and now lives within us. The cross is the place where He accomplished our redemption, but our trust is in the Redeemer, not in the action.

Swaggart’s continual insistence that we must put our faith in the cross represents a subtle shift of emphasis that the Bible itself never makes. In his book The Message of the Cross, Swaggart repeatedly stresses that the cross is what believers should put their faith in. For example, he writes with peculiar capitalization: “the Believer must place his Faith in the Cross and leave his Faith in the Cross.” (Jimmy Swaggart, The Message of the Cross, p. 125, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, Kindle Edition)

Swaggart also declared on his ministry’s website: “It is the Cross of Christ where we must begin, and where we must end. There is nothing after the Cross of Christ, because there needs to be nothing after the Cross of Christ.” (Jimmy Swaggart, The Message of the Cross, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries website, https://www.jsm.org/the-message-of-the-cross)

The fact is, there is much that comes after the cross. After Jesus died on the cross, He rose from the dead, spent forty days with the apostles teaching them about the Kingdom of God, ascended on high, and sent the Holy Spirit to empower the church. Even now He lives in our hearts and intercedes with the Father on our behalf. After the cross, the entire New Testament was written to bear witness to His resurrection and lordship. Indeed, there was much that came after the cross, despite what Jimmy Swaggart claims. Our true faith rests in Jesus and in what He and the apostles taught about the sacred event of the cross. Christ gave Himself there so that we could put our faith in Him and so that He might live in us. He did not endure the cross so that our faith would rest in a doctrine.

The Historical Context of the Preaching of the Cross

We need to understand the historical context of the apostle’s time to fully understand what they meant when the talked about the preaching of the cross. We shall see that the Jimmy Swaggart cross is something entirely different from what the Bible speaks of.

The Jews concept of salvation was that, first of all, you had to be a Jew. Secondly, you had to keep the law. Jesus fulfilled the law and died on the cross as the propitiation for our sins. When he died the veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was rent in two, from top to bottom, signifying that God has now, through the shed blood of Jesus, made it possible for all people, Jews and Gentiles, to come into the presence of God through faith in Jesus, because of his sacrifice for us.

That great event happened because of what Jesus did at Calvary. But that was all strange news to the Jews and many of them thought that the idea of a suffering messiah was nonsense. They were looking for a conquering king who would come and free them by force from Roman rule. The suggestion that their great messiah was someone who suffered and died the death of a criminal on a cross, where the lowest of the low were crucified, was unfathomable to them. They thought that was just absurd. To them it was foolishness.

That’s why Paul says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness…” Paul said that with the Jews in mind. The Jews would not accept Christ because he died on a cross instead of delivering them from the Romans. And since they didn’t put their faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah, they perished.

When the apostles spoke of the preaching of the cross, they were talking about the entire New Covenant. They were talking about the gospel message itself. They were talking about repenting and believing in Jesus, they were referring to the Jesus who died on the cross and three days later came back to life, the Jesus who will live in men’s hearts if they repent and put their faith in Him. The preaching of the cross is this:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

The apostles were not talking about what Jimmy Swaggart was talking about – putting faith in a doctrine. They were not espousing the Jimmy Swaggart cross. Rather, they were teaching that faith belongs in the person of Jesus Christ. Correct doctrine is good and we should study to show ourselves approved, but the kind of faith the Bible talks about belongs to Jesus and to no one else. When we fail, as we all sometimes do, the Bible tells us that Jesus is alive and is right now interceding for us before the Father. Consider the word of God:

“Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:3)

Jesus dying for us was a great thing, but the Bible says “more than that,” he came to life and is interceding for us! It is wonderful he died for us, but even more wonderful he came back to life and lives in us! That is the real preaching of the cross. While the Jimmy Swaggart cross doctrine says, “there is nothing after,” the Bible says that Christ died, but more than that he rose, lives in us, and intercedes for us.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Have you failed? Have you sinned? Don’t give up because Jesus hasn’t given up on you. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8). The Holy Spirit is within you to help you walk with God in holiness.

Scripture says that it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) It is the reality of Christ in us that saves us, our real living relationship with Him, not some magical way of thinking about a doctrine.

The Jimmy Swaggart cross teaching is a perversion of the beautiful biblical truth of what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is a subtle twisting of the truth. The new private revelation promulgated by JSM is designed to draw attention and money to Jimmy Swaggart, but it detracts from Jesus Christ, and anything that does that is an abomination.



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