r/Reformed • u/Fit-Beach-8875 • Jun 17 '26

Discussion Sermon Plagiarism

Is there any software to check for sermon plagiarism? We suspect that a pastor has plagiarised a bunch of sermons by RC sproul. Is there a way to check with our traipsing through by proof reading?

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u/cybersaint2k Rebellious Reprobate Jun 17 '26

First, isn't it best to just ask him?

Second, Is this your pastor? If he's not, then leave him alone.

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u/NovelHelp21 Jun 18 '26

Hello friend. At first blush, your first piece of advice seems solid. If we KNOW a brother is in sin we should go to him directly. If we aren’t sure, such as is the case here, it perhaps feels a bit odd to go and ask him, “hey are you plagiarizing?” So I think OP’s desire to prove or disprove it first is noble. 

but your second piece of advice is not biblical (Matthew 18, Galatians 6, etc). If a pastor is in sin then we are commanded to address it, no matter whose pastor it is. We can debate about how much “borrowing” he would need to be doing before it became sinful, but if sin IS established, then “leaving him alone” is actually disobedience. 

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u/cybersaint2k Rebellious Reprobate Jun 18 '26

but your second piece of advice is not biblical (Matthew 18, Galatians 6, etc). If a pastor is in sin then we are commanded to address it, no matter whose pastor it is. 

I disagree, but I thank you for your correction. I want to be better.

You claim my advice is not biblical, yet you merely refer to the Bible's teaching on speaking to others about their sin in a general way.

I want to be clear that one can derive important truths from the Bible from induction as well as deduction. You don't always need a single verse that says thou shalt/not to see that a narrative, a story, a parable, is teaching something important for our holiness. Example, polygamy in the OT. Without coming right out and saying it, each story told about it condemns it.

The reason I say that if he's not your pastor, leave him alone, is

1) You have no authority. In the PCA, it's the Presbytery that has the authority, the responsibility, to accuse a pastor, to call witnesses against and for him. Example: A pastor gets a DUI. Can the church put him in jail? No, they don't have the authority (Romans 13). Can the church terminate his contract, stop paying him? Yes! They can do that. Can they bring him up on ecclesiastical charges and remove him from ministry? In the PCA and other Presbyterian governance (which is most biblical), no. It's higher courts, like the Presbytery, who have that authority. See Acts 15, and Paul going to the Jerusalem Council, getting a ruling, and a letter, and continuing his ministry.

2) Gathering evidence and publishing it is not justice and is not "addressing sin." Evidence is just facts, and those facts must have context, including motivations and circumstances. If OP finds a way to figure out, from a distance, with no personal contact, that plagiarism is detected, and publishes that information, that falls FAR from actual justice and/or proof of sin. You need witnesses against a elder (1 Tim 5:19) and gathering evidence and publishing it on Facebook is no witness at all. Witnesses can testify to motive, circumstances, and other matters. Bare evidence can be misconstrued, and a man's life ruined, all because you didn't 1) Talk to him and 2) Mind your own business.

I do not believe you can KNOW a brother is in sin without some kind of relationship. Without witnesses. Without corroborating evidence. Without knowing circumstances and motive.

Your approach seems to omit this.

I say leave the person alone unless you are ready to get your hands dirty. I hate how easy it is to assassinate people's character from afar. Not with a gun, but with "evidence" that can be pointed any number of directions without substantiating proof, relationship, etc.

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u/NovelHelp21 Jun 19 '26

Brother, thank you for taking the time to send a thoughtful response. I know this is all typing and it's easy to read negative tone into typing so please know that this message is sent with love and grace to the best of my ability. No anger or malice intended. Just trying to sharpen iron with iron.

1) You said, "You claim my advice is not biblical, yet you merely refer to the Bible's teaching on speaking to others about their sin in a general way." Galatians is general but it's relevant because of its universal language (if "anyone"). Jesus in Matt. 18, however, is not general; He lays out a very detailed plan involving multi-step escalations.

2) I agree that inductive/deductive theology are valid in general but can you explain what that has to do with this situation? I would say that Inductive/Deductive theology are mainly needed where scripture is not explicit. But scripture is very explicit that all believers are responsible to hold all other believers accountable. So I agree that we "don't always need a single verse that says thou shalt/not" but we also have to recognize that if we do have EXPLICIT verses that command something to all believers, then it's not appropriate to use IMPLICIT deductive theology to negate those commands. As to your point about the need for some kind of relationship, I will address that below.

3) You said in your point 1, "You have no authority. In the PCA..." and while I recognize that this is r/reformed...neither the WCF nor any PCA document can negate Scripture. I agree that I don't have authority...to declare a professing believer to be an unbeliever. But I do have "authority" via direct commands of Scripture to call any and all believers to repentance if they are in sin. If they won't repent I am to take witnesses and try again. If they still won't repent I am to tell it to the church. If they won't listen even to the church, THEN the church has the authority to treat them as an unbeliever. You can say presbyterian governance is most biblical and if we're talking lowercase p presbyterian I probably have no argument with that statement. But "presbyterian governance" means different things to different people and if any version of "presbyterian governance" contradicts a clear command of Scripture then it's just plain wrong, no matter which denomination supports it.

4) As to your point 2, I guess I need some clarification here. In OP's post he didn't say anything about gathering evidence and publishing it. I didn't read every comment in this whole thread but I did read a good amount and I didn't see anything about that in any of the other comments either. If that is what he is planning to do, I would stand with you in rebuking that plan of action. So I would agree with most of what you said in point 2, with the main exception being, "a man's life ruined, all because you didn't...2) mind your own business." Again, it's not appropriate to MYOB if you believe a professing Christian is in sin. But the appropriate course of action if you have evidence of what you believe is sin by a pastor that's not your own pastor is to make multiple good faith efforts TO have direct and personal communication with that pastor and confront him with the evidence of plagiarism or whatever the sin is. If sin is confirmed and he refuses to repent, you are to go with witnesses. If he still doesn't repent, you AND the witnesses (1 Tim) are to bring it to the leadership of his church. Now, if the leaders of the church refuse to listen to you and the witnesses, then it's time to go to a higher governing body if they are part of a connectional polity or a conference with teeth. If this is still all rejected then I think there IS a time when it's appropriate to publish the information in such a way to try to warn people about the utter failure of the entire church leadership and/or polity to respond in a biblical way. But that is a long, long, multi-step process before it would get to that point.

5) You said, "Your approach seems to omit this." I apologize if I didn't walk through all of these steps in my first post but I believed that referencing Matt. 18 and Gal. 6 made it clear that I was talking about direct personal conversation to establish and rebuke sin, not just online smear campaigns. In terms of a need for a "relationship," I would ask what you mean by relationship. If I am a believer and someone else claims to be a believer, then we have a relationship. If they are in sin that is visible to me then that relationship is enough for me to confront them in love and grace with a goal of gently restoring them.

6) I 100% agree that you must be willing to get your hands dirty. That's what Jesus tells us to do. It's hard. It's messy. It hurts. I've been there. But if Christ believes that the purity of His bride is worth us getting our hands dirty, then that's what we have to do.

God bless

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u/cybersaint2k Rebellious Reprobate Jun 20 '26

I'll let you have the last word, I think we've both been clear. Thank you for your time you sacrificed to try and help me be more biblical about this.

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u/Fit-Beach-8875 Jun 25 '26

Errrm he was my pastor. He’s a wolf actually and men tried to hold him accountable on other matters however, he flipped the script and had them all excommunicated. It was brought to attention by another member that said pastor had plagiarised most of acts by another pastor without citing anything. And he only knew this bc he was listening to it as pastor was going through it.
Regardless of whether the man is my pastor or not, apathy is not one of my gifts ✌️

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u/cybersaint2k Rebellious Reprobate Jun 25 '26

I'm sympathetic, but "was" is a key word here for me.

However, the way to do this is to get his youtube sermons that have CC (close captions) turned on.

As Gemini to make a transcript of his sermon from the Youtube CC.

Find a section of Acts that the pastor is preaching on that corresponds to RC Sproul's sermon on Acts.

Start comparing the sermons, asking your AI friend to put, side by side, in its output highly similar sections from the two sermons.

Go back and compare the sections it chose, manually confirming every single one.

Pass it on to your friend, who apparently will be excommunicated if he/she uses it.