1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Who are the Leaders of the Word-Faith Movement?
A growing number of pastors, teachers, and evangelists within the Charismatic/Pentecostal circles of the Christian church are advancing what has come to be known as the “Word Faith” movement. Its major leaders include such prominent figures as Kenneth Hagin; Kenneth Copeland; Frederick K. C. Price; 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 Benny Hinn, TBN and Paul Crouch, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Gloria Copeland, Robert Tilton, John Avanzini, John Osteen, T. L. Osborne, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey, Jerry Savelle, Joyce Meyer, Morris Cerullo, Casey Treat, Dwight Thompson, and Oral and Richard Roberts.

The Word Faith false doctrines are commonly disseminated through radio broadcasts, tapes, books, and tracts, primarily through the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN [a.k.a.:The Blasphemy Network]), which regularly airs the programs of more than a dozen of these heretical teachers. Paul and Jan Crouch, the directors of TBN, who are themselves deeply involved in the movement, have also featured Word Faith teachers as special guests on their “Praise the Lord” and “Praise-a-thon” (fund-raiser scam) programs. The Crouchs’ 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 heavily influenced in many quarters by this movement to the point where 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 influenced pastors and leaders – and also through the “GOD Christian Channel” which concentrates on many of tese teachers via Satellite and Cable TV. In South Wales the main adherents are pastored by Ray Bevan in King’s Church, Newport, but the influence is also noticeable in the Elim and Assemblies of God Pentecostal movements.

What is the attitude of Word-Faith teachers?
The vibrant message delivered with great authority through these media, and seemingly backed by Scripture and buttressed by claims of the miraculous, has led many astray. These teachers often deliver cautions against those who would criticize the doctrines.

Such people are called “nay sayers” and “heretic hunters” and negative influences. If such people cannot be won over to Word-Faith teachings, the listener or reader is told, they are of the devil and should be avoided. An example of the kind of sneering and contradictory attack launched on anyone who questions their beliefs and doctrines can be heard from Ray Bevan’s ministry (King’s Church, tapes – 6th & 13th September ‘98). Often when a Word-Faith teacher or their teachings are criticized, there will be allegations of “sowing division in the body” or lack of belief in healing, or demons, or the miraculous.

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 ministry, He said that if a church doesn’t accept my ministry then I should go my way, shake the dust off my feet against them so to speak; but He would remove their candlestick. He would take away from them what power they had left. …. He said that judgment must begin in the house of God, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear. If a church won’t accept this ministry, then they wouldn’t accept His Word and He can’t help them” (The Ministry of a Prophet, p.19).

We believe in divine healing, both instantaneous and gradual, the existence of demons and deliverance from them; and that the gifts of the Spirit are for the church today as they have been since its beginning. Criticizing a body of teachings is not the same as judging one who accepts those teachings. However, 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).

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 to challenge and expose error and point out to brethren who these mistaken teachers are (Acts 20:28-31 & 2 Timothy 2:16-18). It does not mean that these teachers are not true brethren, 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 damaged by the deception.

Word-Faith Origins
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 apparently 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. As Christian Science is nothing more than Gnosticism in modern garb, it is fairly certain that Kenyon was further influenced by Gnostic ideas during this training. 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 (read The Born-Again Jesus of the Word-Faith Teaching, p.25-26.) It is from these publications that most of the presumptions of the Word-Faith teachings are drawn but most adherents believe they originated from Kenneth E. “Dad” Hagin. However, the truth is that Hagin blatantly and unashamedly plagiarised his doctrines from Kenyon and his daughter, Ruth Kenyon Houseworth, stills seeks fair recognition of this fact (A Different Gospel, D.R. McConnell, pub. Hendrickson, 1995, p.4-6)

You will be like God – says Satan! (Genesis 3:5)

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 is recreated as a new species of being. 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. When he sinned he became a partaker of Satan’s nature, selfishness. … The part of man that is re-created in [sic] his spirit. God imparts to our spirit His own nature, Eternal Life” (The Hidden Man, p.121).

When that happens one is “a new species of being that never existed before” (Kenneth Copeland, Now We Are In Christ Jesus, p. 5). Hagin says “the believer is as much an Incarnation as Jesus Christ” (Faith Food, p. 23). 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.” (Gloria Copeland, quoted in Crenshaw, Man as God, 202). 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” (cf. 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).

What happened to the Blood Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ?
A further denial of the uniqueness of Jesus occurs in Word-Faith teachings on the atonement. According to their interpretation of Scripture, much more happened during Christ’s crucifixion and death than is orthodox or Scriptural. “Jesus went into hell to free mankind. … When His blood poured out it did not atone.” (Kenneth Copeland, quoted in McConnell, Different Gospel, 120). “When [Jesus] said ‘it is finished,’ on that cross, He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. The plan of redemption had just begun. There was still three days and three nights to go through. … [in hell], He suffered punishment for three horrible days and nights . . . “He’s [Jesus] separated from His God and in that moment He’s a mortal man: capable of failure, capable of death”" (Kenneth Copeland, What Happened from the Cross to the Throne, cassette tape). “Jesus died as our substitute. He who knew no sin was made to be sin. He took upon Himself our sin nature. And He died – He was separated and cut off from God. He went down into the prison house of suffering in our place. He was there three days and nights . . .”Not only was He physically resurrected – His body resurrected – but His spirit was made alive unto God again. He had died spiritually. He took upon Himself spiritual death – for us. And He is the first one who was ever born again. His new birth is our new birth” (Kenneth Hagin, Made Alive, April 1982, p. 3). “He suffered in his own body, and more important, in His spirit. Jesus experienced the same spiritual death that entered man in the Garden of Eden [i.e., He took on Satan's nature]. … After Jesus was made sin, He had to be born again.

… Jesus was a born-again man” (Gloria Copeland, God’s Will For You, p. 50). “Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God.” (Frederick K. C. Price, “If Christ Did Not Rise … What Then?” Ever Increasing Faith Messenger (June 1980): 7). “Jesus went into hell to free mankind. … When His blood poured out it did not atone.” (Kenneth Copeland, quoted in McConnell, Different Gospel, 120). 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” (bracket added). “In whom [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7, emphasis added).(cf. Psalm 139:7-8; John 5:26; 10:17-18; 19:30; Colossians 1:19-20; 2:13-15; Revelation 1:5).

In summary, 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 looking in” (Kenneth Copeland, Our Covenant With God, p. 8).

Jesus came so that man’s spirit might be re-created (i.e., man might reclaim the divine nature). 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! The way was then clear for man to have his spirit re-created – to receive the divine nature and to become as much an incarnation as Jesus was! 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” (cf. Exodus 9:13-14; Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; 2 Samuel 7:22; Isaiah 46:9; Jeremiah 10:6; Hosea 11:9).

To Be Continued…

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