Deception in the Church

 A growing number of pastors, teachers, and evangelists within the Charismatic/Pentecostal/Evangelical/Prosperity circles of the Christian church are advancing what has come to be known as the "Word Faith" movement. Its major leaders include Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick K. C. Price, Jesse Duplantis, Sid Roth, Joyce Meyers and David (Paul) Yongii Cho, who pastors one of the largest churches in the world in Seoul, Korea.  Other well-known Word Faith personalities include Gloria Copeland, Robert Tilton, John Avanzini, John Osteen, T. L. Osborne, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey, Jerry Savelle, J.D. Jake,  Morris Cerullo, Casey Treat, Dwight Thompson, Hinn, John Hagee, Rodney Brown, Creflo Dollar and Richard Roberts. The Christian Broadcasting Networks that endorse and support these people are Daystar and Trinity Broadcasting Network.

I want to make it clear I do not believe that every word these ministers/teachers say is deception.  I listen to Joyce Meyers and Joel Osteen regularly, but they do freely stray from the Gospel when it fits their needs.  That is why it is so important for everyone to study and know scripture for themselves so they can discern truth from deception.  Christians are told to compare any teachings, and the gospel they bring, to the Word of God and to cast off any that contradict Scripture (Acts 17:11; Galatians 1:6-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Trinity Broadcasting Network’s worldwide platform has mainstreamed Word Faith theology to the lives of millions of Christians who would not otherwise have encountered Word Faith theology.  Christianity in the western world has been so heavily influenced in many quarters by this movement that now many consider it the main thrust of the charismatic movement. 

In Europe these doctrines are brought in through visiting USA speakers and their materials, and by influential local pastors and leaders (all looking to get rich) - and also through the "GOD Christian Channel" which concentrates on many of these teachers/evangelist/pastors via Satellite and Cable TV. Recently England refused to allow Hinn to enter their country because they did not want their citizens exposed or conned by him anymore.  The Word Faith movement took hold in Africa rapidly because local ministers were influenced by the wealth of the evangelist from the United States.

The leaders of this movement are quick to attack anyone who questions their teachings.  They claim those that question are "sowing division in the body" or lack faith or lack belief in God’s ability to heal, or they may even claim they are demon possessed. No man on earth today has the power to instantly heal one after another.  Why is there never any medical proof of these healings?  

A classic example of this can be seen in a quote from Word-Faith teacher Kenneth Hagin: "When the Lord was dealing with me concerning the prophet's (HIS) ministry, GOD said that if a church doesn't accept my ministry then I should go my own way, shake the dust off my feet against them (CURSE THEM) so to speak; but GOD would remove their candlestick (THEIR POWER).  GOD said that judgment must begin in the house of God, and If a church won't accept  MY ministry, then they wouldn't accept His Word if it came from His own mouth and even GOD can't help them."

If a person reads into the sacred text something that does not belong there and is not consistent with sound exegesis and hermeneutics, then Christians have a right an should challenge and expose error and point out who these mistaken teachers are (Acts 20:28-31 & 2 Timothy 2:16-18).  It does not mean that these teachers are not true Christians, although they may not be.  It does not mean that we should love them any less.  It simply means that an error has been found and exposed and should be dealt with in love for the truth, and compassion for those that could be damaged by the deception.

The spiritual mentor of today's Word-Faith teachers is Essek W. Kenyon, a man who was greatly influenced by the metaphysical mind science cults such as Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity, and Church of Religious Science and who received his theological training from the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, Mass.  The founder of that institution, Charles Wesley Emerson, is on record as being a member of the Mother Church of Christian Science from 1903 to 1908.

After leaving the school - it is not clear from records whether or not he graduated - Kenyon settled in Seattle, Wash., where he was pastor of the New Covenant Baptist Church and broadcast a radio program, "Church of the Air," until his death in 1948.  Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society published materials from his writings and broadcasts.  It is from these publications that most of the presumptions of the Word-Faith teachings are drawn, but most believe they originated from Kenneth E. "Dad" Hagin. The truth is that Hagin got most of his doctrines from Kenyon and his daughter, Ruth Kenyon Houseworth.

The bedrock of Word-Faith doctrine is what Kenyon calls "new creation realities." For the rest of the Word-Faith assertions to work, man first must be exalted to a high position.  Word-Faith teaching puts man on the same level as Jesus Christ.  This is done by assembling Scripture passages to purportedly prove that once a man is in Christ, then the "new creature" spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:17 has the same spirit as God.   Kenyon writes: "You see, man is a spirit being.  He is in the same class with God.  He was created in the image and likeness of God.  He had to be in order to become a partaker of the Divine Nature.  Creflo Dollar today says “We are little “gods” all of us that accept Christ become “little gods”.   Creflo Dollar says the only thing human about us is our physical bodies all else is the a same as God.

Kenneth Copeland writes in “Now We Are In Christ Jesus, p. 5”. that Hagin says, "The believer is as much an Incarnation as Jesus Christ.”  Kenneth Copeland says, "Jesus is no longer the only begotten son of God" (Now We Are In Christ Jesus, p. 24). "We are the Word made flesh, just as Jesus was."  So, in the Word-Faith teaching, Jesus loses his uniqueness.  The believer is elevated to the position of being a God-man the same way Jesus was a God-man.  They claim that the only difference is Jesus obtained his position by birth and the rest obtain it by a re-creation of the spirit.  Read  Isaiah 44:8: "Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any" ( Isaiah 43:10; John 1:18;  John 5:44; John 17:3; James 2:19; 1 Timothy 2:5; Colossians 1:14-17; Hebrews 1:2-3).  Joyce Meyers teaches the same thing we are all Sons of God just as Jesus Christ is.  Christ is no longer the only begotten Son of God.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Fredrick Price say the blood of Christ did not pay for ours sins.  Christ suffering and blood on the cross was not enough to pay our sin debt.  That Jesus lost all his spirituality and God the Father forsake Christ and sent Him to suffer in hell for three days.  Christ paid our sin debt in hell not on the cross.  Gloria Copeland even added if the cross had been enough the two thieves that hung on crosses by Jesus could have paid our sin debt.  Read Hebrews 12:2: "Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross [not torture in hell], despising the shame.”  "In whom [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).( Psalm 139:7-8; John 5:26; 10:17-18; 19:30;  Colossians 1:19-20;  2:13-15; Revelation 1:5). 

the Word-Faith plan of redemption says:  Man was created as the "same order of being as God."  A spirit temporarily housed in a body.  He was given dominion over the Earth.  When he committed "high treason" by following Satan instead of God, man then gave up the divine nature and took on the nature of Satan.  Satan then became the god of this world and man thereafter was born with the satanic nature.  "Suddenly, God was on the outside the earth looking in", (Kenneth Copeland, Our Covenant With God, p. 8).  They say Satan rules the earth and God is ruling heaven and God has no power on earth until Jesus Christ comes again.

On the cross, the plan of redemption merely began.  It was there that Jesus took on the nature of Satan, lost His divinity, became a mortal man, and went to hell.  There He suffered torture at the hand of Satan until God said "enough." Having kept the Law of God perfectly, the man Jesus was declared to be "illegally" in hell.  At that point, Jesus' spirit was re-created.  He again had the divine nature - Jesus was then born again!   Just as we are born again or recreated when we accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  Re-created men "now have the nature of God... the ability of God" (E.W. Kenyon, What Happened from the Cross to the Throne, p. 82).  There are no verses in Scripture to support this blasphemous theology - read Exodus 8:10: "There is none like unto the Lord our God"  Exodus 9:13-14; Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; 2 Samuel 7:22; Isaiah 46:9; Jeremiah 10:6; Hosea 11:9).

Word Faith ministers use different interpretations of words that are not the correct Greek or Hebrew.  They make the words fit their needs for example I was amused when Charles Capps said Concerning the statement in Job 1:21, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away," Word-Faith teacher Charles Capps says, "Job did say it, but it is not a true statement.  It is a lie. ... Job was not under the anointing when he made that statement" (The Tongue - A Creative Force, pp. 8-9).  A few weeks prior the same teacher said EVERY WORD IN THE BIBLE IS TRUE!!

When this kind of fanciful Bible interpretation is used, the Scriptures can be made to say anything you want them to say.

The church failed me I did not fail the church.

We speak often of the young people straying from God and I do not and never have believed young people are straying from God.  They are straying from organized religion – the church. They are fleeing a religion that has become more about prosperity than love, more about condemning than forgiveness, more about ministers living extravagant lifestyles than helping the poor, more about ministers being the focus of the ministry in order to become celebrities rather than making God the focus of their message.  The young people are not straying they are running to get away from the hypocrisy in the Christian Church which has becoming nothing more than a business to make a few rich beyond their dreams.

Bishop Jake of Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas was not satisfied with the fame and fortune he had accumulated and had to have more.  He is the new “Doctor Phil” on television.  Joyce Meyer’s realizing she is getting older and may want to step aside as the head minister of Joyce Meyer’s Ministries and enjoy all her toys made sure her book royalties no longer go to the ministry, but come directly to her.  Joel Osteen has turned a “self-help” ministry into personal assets worth far more than forty million dollars in a few years.  The Copelands fly around in a twenty million dollar jet while foolish people send them prayer request which the Copeland’s never see or pray over, but make sure the millions sent in with the prayer request are accounted for.   Jesse Duplantis is a onetime used car salesman that should be on a Comedy Hour Show and not in a ministry.  I admit he is entertaining.  Then we have Murdock, Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Paula White, Ed Young, Jr., Ed Young, Sr.,  John Hagee, Charles Blake, Franklin Graham, Rick Warren and the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals that do not have to make fools of themselves on television to live like royalty.

I think a lot of senior citizens, like me, are also fed up with Christian Organized Religion.  I as a retired priest can no longer force myself to go to Mass.  You see I know too much about the hierarchy of my church.  The cover-up of child abuse in my church was the straw that broke the camel’s back, once it became public the hierarchy continued to deny it and blame the messengers. I reported a case to my bishop over forty years ago and was told as many priest were told, “I will take care of it, but say nothing about this to anyone we have to protect the Church.”  It took a long time for me to realize that God did not need us to cover up a crime in order to protect the Church. In reality in most cases the Bishops and Cardinals were protecting their own secrets.  The laity of the church allowed this to happen and many in the church pews today want to sweep it under the rug.   Those that speak out are said to want to destroy the church.  It never crosses their naïve minds that some of us want to help the church be what God called it to be.    

I am closer to God today than I have ever been in my life – no thanks to the church hierarchy.  I will confess I do not understand why God allows the hierarchy of the church and religious organizations to continue to make a mockery of Him.  I try to rationalize that perhaps the few and seldom truths they spew in pulpits and on television help some.  I believe that one day God will seek revenge as He did with Jimmy Swagger of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

I do not fault the poor naïve people that these religious leaders take advantage of because all people are looking for love. God makes that plain in this verse in Proverbs. What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar (Proverbs 19:22).  True love comes from God.  There is a part of us that can only be satisfied by a relationship with God. The love of a man or woman simply cannot take that spot. Just because our experience with church – organized religion has proved unfulfilling, abandoning God for something physical will only leave us emptier inside.  These charlatans prey on the need people have for unconditional love.  

You, God, are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

Psalm 63:1-3

Hypocrisy is a real problem in the church today. Hypocrisy exists in church because there is hypocrisy not only in the religious leaders, but also among the laity. That’s a truth that most of us know and some will not admit. Let’s face our own hypocrisy so we can root it out.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?… You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:41,43)

Today, men and women must struggle to find his or her own identity in an oppressive culture of church.  God isn’t the problem. Neither is the kind of church we learn about from the Bible. Loveless religion changes when we live lives that make God attractive, build relationships that feel like family, and do good in our own communities. Now that’s real church.  That is what the younger generation is looking for and not getting in the church today.  Instead of real love they are getting empty words and even I nearing eighty am sick of it.

As long as those running organized religion continue to blame the Internet, liberal thinking, lack of religious upbringing, gays/lesbians, same sex marriage, etc. and continue to blame non-believers, politics, worldly distractions, etc., instead of looking within people young and old will continue to leave the church/organized religion.  The solution is simple stop putting the emphasis on religion and the organizations and start putting it on a personal  relationship with God.

In our current cultural moment, unprecedented millions are sick to death of what religion has become today. There are more people who do not want to be associated with any organized religion in the United States than there are Catholics and nearly as many Protestants.  

I am a Bible believing Christian. I believe in God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that the Bible is reliable and is the basis for truth. I believe that God wants to have a relationship with everyone on earth and to see them come to salvation. I have a hard time believing in religion. I am seldom religious any more ... God created us for relationship. He wants to walk with us, talk with us, help us to learn and grow. We are spiritual beings, created to know God. One of the problems I see with the church/organized religion is that it takes its focus off of the relationship and puts it onto the “lifestyle” of Christians.

There is a Christian lifestyle defined by man — common dos and don’ts, ways of talking and behaving, an expected political view — and unfortunately, a common critical eye towards those who believe differently and act differently. I find the biggest fault with Christianity/organized religion is  the focus on sin, both personal sin and the sin of others rather than grace and forgiveness. Jesus Christ did not come and die on the cross to get us to stop sinning. He knew that was impossible. He came to set us free from sin. He came, not to put our focus on sin, but to take our focus off of it ... God wants our focus to be on Him, not on the rules.  I have found through the years the more you try not to sin the more you sin – trust God!

I don’t lay down the law against my best friend. We have a relationship; we love each other, and learn and grow together. Rules don’t make that relationship work, love does. God wants the same thing to be true with the relationship He has with us.

Now after saying what I have I think the church community is important (critical) to a believers life.  It is sad that trying to find a church today that allows you to discuss, agree and disagree with one another, to question freely what you do not understand or believe and not be judged is hard to find.  It is difficult to learn in a vacuum or alone.  To truly learn one must be able to express their ideas freely and be able to share and receive knowledge from one another.  It is far better in my opinion to be spiritual and religious, but finding a place to do that is like I said nearly impossible. I think Jesus called us to transcend petty religion.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

Jesus backed up this invitation with his life. He overturned Temple tables, healed on the Sabbath (and taught others to do the same), called religious leaders “broods of vipers” and “whitewashed tombs,” cursed fig trees symbolizing fruit-less religionists. This kind of confrontation was not uncommon: So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”  He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions” (Mark 7:5-9)!

Jesus’ overall appraisal of the religionists of His day is “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” Jesus seemed to be about creating a new kind of community, one where the values of repressive religion and empire would be absent.  We have forgotten the lessons of Jesus pertaining to His followers and have reverted back to the ways of the Pharisees. (Matthew 20:25-27).  Paul advocated for a Spirit-led rather than rules-led community.

2017 is as good a time as any to bring life back to the church and organized religion and we will not do that with stage shows and entertainment.