The Truth About The Word of Faith Movement

Article by Tom Killingsworth from here [See also http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/shepherding-discipleship-spiritual-fathering-mentoring-pastoral-covering/ ]

“I used to wonder why Shepherding reappeared in the Charismatic churches considering that the founders pretty much shut it down around 1990, and publicly repented. It didn’t make sense why it not only lingered, but began thriving again. I have lately found out why it reappeared. It snuck in through the teachings of the Word of Faith, one of the most influential movements since the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. The Word of Faith may be influential, but it is also an apostasy, and carries Shepherding clinging to it like a leech.

I was a follower of the Word of Faith doctrine from 1990 until 2005. Even when I began to break with the Word of Faith over the extremes of the Prosperity Gospel, I still maintained connections with them. I was a licensed minister through a Word of Faith church from 2004 through 2007, and my wife worked for Kenneth Copeland Ministries from 2003 until late 2007. During that time, I noticed more and more spiritual abuse, things that reminded me of Shepherding. I began to wonder, “Is the Word of Faith in general, and Kenneth Copeland Ministries in particular, Shepherdist, or merely spiritually abusive, or am I nuts?”

Early this year (2008), I found out that I am not nuts!

In his book A Different Gospel,  D.R. McConnell points out the origins of the Word of Faith. This is not a rant by a Fundamentalist preacher. This book began as McConnell’s master’s thesis when he was a student at Oral Roberts University. He is a Charismatic pastor, so this is an insider’s look at something he finds disturbing.

McConnell says that today’s Word of Faith preachers (Kenneth Copeland, John Avanzini, Creflo Dollar, etc.) base their doctrine on the works and teachings of Kenneth Hagin. We knew that.

McConnell then says that Hagin based (some say plagiarized) his doctrines on the works of E.W. Kenyon. We knew that, too.

But then McConnell drops a 2,000 megaton bombshell, ripping through my views of the Word of Faith like a lawnmower through Bermuda grass. He states that Kenyon based his teachings and beliefs on what he was taught in college, at the hands of teachers who were Gnostic and Christian Scientist.

Whoa! That makes the whole doctrine pretty much suspect from the beginning!

Kenyon attended the Emerson School of Oratory in 1892. There, he was under the influence of Charles Emerson, a Christian Scientist; R.W. Trine, a Gnostic who wrote one of the major books on New Thought; and M.J. Savage, a Unitarian whose church Kenyon attended.

Let’s look at those beliefs and see how the Word of Faith dovetails into them.

Gnosticism is a complex system of beliefs hammered together from earlier ones. It has existed as far back as before the time of Christ and was a real problem to the Church as early as the time of John and Peter. To summarize Gnosticism, it believes that salvation is through knowledge of mysteries (gained through intuition), that all matter is evil and that only spirit is good (a belief called Dualism), that Jesus could not have been purely good because He was in a human body, that Jesus was a mere man, that God created lesser gods, and that only Gnostics, “people who knew,” were guaranteed salvation. They also believe that God could only be reached through gnosis, through the divine revelation of mysterious knowledge. Gnostics also believe that God is a hermaphrodite; half male, half female. Gnostics believed in a divine formula, that once understood, would destroy the power of evil.

Gnosticism’s more modern offshoot, New Thought, states that Spirit is the ultimate reality, the true human self is divine, divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good, most disease is mental in origin, and that right thinking has a healing effect. While that may sound Biblical, it is actually a form of early Humanism, and was founded on pantheism, occultism, spiritualism, and the basics of Gnosticism.

Christian Science is founded on the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy. … Some of the things that they believe [aren't biblical] … include “mind over matter,” the idea that all things are spiritual and the material world is an illusion, and the denial of physical ailments. Please note that Christian Science is not Scientology.

Hmmm … I see parallels already. Let’s review some of them.

The Word of Faith believes:

• Divine Revelation: well, I believe in it, too, but all divine revelation has to mesh perfectly with the Bible. Word of Faith preachers teach that they are the dispensers of this revelation, and imply that only they are capable of giving it. They will rely more on what “God told them” than on what was written in the Bible, despite their insistence that we, the congregation, must find three scripture verses to support what we want to do. This is not unlike the Gnostic belief in mysterious knowledge.
• They put God in a box: Word of Faith preachers deny God’s sovereignty and actually mock the concept. They make God a slave to “spiritual laws” that even He can’t break. They teach that we can twist God’s arm to get what we want, enabling us to write our own ticket with Him (Kenneth Hagin’s term), or turn God into a vending machine (Richard Roberts’ term). The concept of spiritual laws and the idea that God is at our beck and call is definitely Gnostic.
• Jesus died spiritually: while the idea that Jesus went to Hell is as old as the Church, the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds do NOT say that Jesus died spiritually and had to be born again. If Jesus did die spiritually, then Jesus was a mere man, and not God incarnate. Again, this is a Gnostic belief — that Jesus was a mere man.
• Spiritual laws: Word of Faith is founded on the concept that there are spiritual laws in the Bible, that even God is bound to obey. These spiritual laws include things like reciprocity, sowing and reaping, the law of sin and death, the law of the tongue, etc. Once these laws are understood and worked with, then Satan has no more power over the Christian. That may be true, and I’m not saying that it is, but it sounds an awful lot like the Gnostic belief in divine formulas.
• God is as much female as He is male: I don’t know where they get this from Biblically, but more than one Word of Faith has said this. They also teach that Adam was both male and female at the same time, and God removed Adam’s female half, not just a rib. If this were true, then the pronoun for God in the Bible would be either “it” or “s/he,” not “he.” A hermaphroditic view of God is pure Gnosticism.
• Man is equal with Jesus and God: the idea that we are made in God’s image is Biblical, but the Word of Faith teaching that we are little gods, or that we are made in God’s class is not. Being equal with God is Gnostic at best, Lucifer’s rant at worst.
• Our words can change time, space and matter: this is known as “Name It and Claim It.” Sure, our words can change attitudes and maybe our bodies, but not to the extent that we are the “prophets of our own lives.” This is Christian Scientist “mind over matter,” retooled for modern times.
• Emphasis on Dominion over the Earth instead of forgiveness of sins and the need to love others: Most Word of Faith theology is rooted in having dominion over the Earth, and that Adam was the god of this planet. Do I have to go into that? Gnostics believed that they were gods.
• The reality of sickness and sin is denied: The Word of Faith says that they do not deny sickness and sin, but deny sickness and sin’s place in their bodies. It’s the same thing. Christian Science denies sickness, often to the point of dying instead of taking medicine. Word of Faith preachers do the same thing, often mocking doctors and medicine, despite having them on their daily television shows.
• Prayer is replaced by confession: Prayer connects us with God. Confession connects us with us. In other words, confession, whether it is what we desire or a Bible verse, is a Gnostic practice of mumbling chants and spells, replacing God with our own minds, because we have the knowledge it takes to save ourselves.
• God can only be pleased by faith: This is based on a verse in Hebrews. The implication is that if we are not standing on three scriptures from the Bible, believing we receive, and holding God to the spiritual laws, then God is not pleased with us. This is very similar to the Gnostic concept that the only way to God is through gnosis (in this case, the only way to God is through the strict definition of faith that the preacher uses). This totally rules out the concept that the way to God is through Jesus Christ.
• Dualism: The Word of Faith stresses that everything is spiritual, and that the physical is not important. They mock education and creatitivy and the five human senses. They hate sex (Kenneth Copeland said that we were supposed to speak our children into existence, Gloria Copeland said that sex was a product of the fall of Adam, and Benny Hinn said that women were originally supposed to give birth from their armpits). Despite their obsession with healing, they hate the human body, calling it an “earth suit.” Dualism is a Gnostic belief. Sure, you find the same teaching in the works of St. Augustine, but remember, he was a Gnostic before becoming a Christian.

I should have seen all this from the beginning, but I didn’t. I fell for the teaching that I could get rich quick and that I didn’t have to be sick a day in my life. There is a sucker born every minute! The reason the Word of Faith fooled me, and millions of other Christians, is that there is a lot of Biblical truth in it. Much of what Word of Faith preachers teach is sound. But what they teach that is sound is nothing more than the truths found in the Pentecostal movement of 1906 and the Charismatic Renewal of 1967. It’s the rest that’s poisoned; the part that orginated with Kenyon, was modified by Hagin and has been perpetuated by Copeland.

Another reason the Word of Faith fooled me, and millions of others, is that the preachers are genuinely sincere Christians who love Jesus! {Endtimes note: I do not agree with this bit – some may be sincere and genuine but many are NOT] Kenyon, Hagin, Copeland, Dollar and others have helped millions of people know Christ better. They really believe that what they preach is totally Biblical. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Kenyon fought against the metaphysical religions of Christian Science and New Thought, denying their more obvious unbiblical teachings. Yet, he ended up embracing enough of these unbiblical teachings to turn the Word of Faith from what should have been a new branch of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement into a genuine cult.

I know, I know … there are Word of Faith apologetics that refute every one of these observations. The thing for me is this — I was an insider and saw this firsthand. I saw the abuses, and the apostasies, and people running around chanting their mantras, and I had enough. McConnell’s claims make sense to me. They explain what I saw. You have to decide for yourself.

This does not make the Word of Faith a heresy. Heresy is a rebellion against the doctrines of an established church. The Word of Faith is its own denomination, so it has nothing to rebel against. It is instead, an apostasy! An apostasy is nothing less than a rebellion against God Himself.

It gets worse.

There is a direct link between the Word of Faith and Shepherding.

Tricia Tillin, in her online testimony, shows this direct link. She lives in Great Britain, and was involved with KCM and the Word of Faith during the latter part of the 20th Century. In her blog, she writes that in 1985, she visited the UK headquarters for KCM and had a conversation with the worker there. During this conversation, Mrs. Tillin brought up how she was relieved that Kenneth Copeland was so opposed to Shepherding. Mrs. Tillin expected the worker to agree with her. Instead, Mrs. Tillin writes “She was evasive, would not condemn Shepherding doctrines, and then said that there had been a change of heart and the Copeland ministry would now be working more closely with the Shepherding leadership, and we should be praying for unity between them. This was devastating! Formerly they agreed Shepherding was in error, but now they’d changed their minds, and were going to work alongside each other!”

Then there is Stephen Parson’s book Ungodly Fear. Parson writes that in 1985 (the same year that Mrs. Tillin visited the KCM headquarters in Great Britain), at a convention of the Network of Christian Ministries, Kenneth Copeland said the Word of Faith and the Shepherding doctrines ought to be merged.

So, two different sources identify that the Word of Faith and Shepherding married each other. This does, at least to me, explains what I saw during my tenure with KCM and the Word of Faith. If the Word of Faith was so far from the truth to begin with, then it’s easy to understand how it could so easily embrace another apostasy like Shepherding.

And it also explains how Shepherding has made so many inroads into the Charismatic churches and ministries. Kenneth Copeland is a highly respected and influential teacher among many Charismatics. They are simply doing what they see his ministry and church do.”

See also http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/some-of-the-real-rotten-roots-of-modern-word-of-faith-theology/

and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/positive-negative-confession-word-faith-logos-rhema/

Sugar Daddy God

By Bill Bonner, from the website here. The bold emphasises are mine.

“Daddy God” is how Victoria Osteen refers to Him. Honestly. I’m not making this up. When Mr Joel Osteen took a wife, it was Victoria he got, for better or for worse. Now the two of them preside over a mega-church in a suburb of Houston. Mr Osteen is the author of a super-bestselling book, Your Best Life Now.  God wants us to be prosperous, he argues, in front of thousands of worshippers.

In Atlanta, the Rev Creflo Dollar Jr seems to be doing even better. He and his wife Taffi entertain at another huge church, drive around in a Rolls-Royce, and have a private $5m jet to move them from one speaking engagement to another. Mr Dollar, like Mr Osteen, believes in the power of God to move mountains, but they trust in the Almighty Dollar to smooth out the little foothills in their way.

Last year, for example, Mr Dollar sent 100 of the local Fulton County police officers cheques for $1,000 each – a month after two traffic tickets the Reverend Dollar had received had been downgraded to warnings. And back in the Lone Star State, Kenneth Copeland and his main squeeze, Gloria, have done even better – with four jets at their disposal. Mr. Copeland, the subject of a MoneyWeek article last month, is said to have a parsonage the “size of a hotel”.

This may be just another part of the baroque spectacle that makes America such an amusing place. But there is more to the story, which is – as you might guess – the subject of today’s column.

Gibbon blamed the fall of Rome, at least in part, on Christianity, by encouraging a retreat from the temporal world. Now, Kevin Phillips, in a new book, Bad Money, charges the Pentecostal wing of American Christianity with undermining the US empire in the opposite way. He argues that the evangelicals pushed the Republicans down-market. There, the yahoo voters brought them temporal power – 30% of Republican voters identify themselves with an evangelical sect – but at a high price.

Among the many frauds of the Reagan-Bush II period, few were gaudier than the “prosperity gospel”. Preached in America’s gamy religious outposts, the concept does for religion what the neo-conservatives did to conservatism, what modern portfolio theory did for Wall Street, and what Keynesianism did to the economics profession – it made a monkey of it.

In politics, the neos hammered conservativism into almost the exact opposite of what it had been. The old conservatives were wet-blankets, do-nothings and naysayers. When news spread of Calvin Coolidge’s death, for example, people asked “how could they tell”? But the new conservatives are the life of the party. It is said that George W. Bush “doesn’t even know the meaning of the word can’t”. (Of course, there are a lot of words he doesn’t know the meaning of.) And the neocons’ idea of political economy was similarly liberated from any notions of conservatism and common sense. “Deficits don’t matter,” said Dick Cheney, speaking for every wishful thinker since Caligula.

On Wall Street and the City the old conservative doctrines were put away with top hats. In place of prudence came derring do. In place of reasonable salaries came breathtaking bonuses. Mortgage lenders no longer studied a borrower to make sure they were good credit risks; they didn’t even take his pulse. And they no longer seemed to care whether their takeovers, triple-A paper, and structured products made any real financial sense; it was enough that they paid a fee. In economics, too, somehow, the world’s leading economists bent the figures into a preposterous new shape that even a teenager could love. An economy can get richer by living it up, they said; and the purpose of central banking was to encourage consumption rather than capital formation.

Was it any wonder that the pulpits sank into the honey too? Along came Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker with a sexy new religion – spreading the get-rich gospel over the TV waves. Then, poor Jim got sent to prison for fraud, and when he came out he renounced the new doctrine. But other couples – these preachers seem to work in husband and wife teams, like Bonnie and Clyde – picked up the tablets. Soon, they had convinced millions to give up the hard benches of the old Calvinists and sink their plump derrières into some of the cushiest seats in Christendom. Churchgoers at Mr. Dollar’s World Changers church services wave envelopes full of cash, reports the Atlanta paper. On the big screen, they offer testimonies of ‘financial blessings’ that came their way after they began sending the preacher 10% of their pre-tax earnings: “The congregants… yell in joy as ushers pass the white buckets down the row to collect the envelopes. After more singing, Dollar preaches. He attacks the idea that Christians should limit material possessions. Christians have for too long let the “devil’s crowd” get all the money and power, he says. Then he tells congregants to say, “I want my stuff.” “I want my stuff,” they repeat, laughing.

Politics, money, religion – the flim flam was the same everywhere. And everywhere it was the promise of something for nothing, gain without pain, Easter without Good Friday. But with America’s house prices falling and unemployment rising, the Pentecostals will find it harder to get their stuff than ever. God may not have wanted them to be wealthy after all. On the evidence, maybe He just likes a good laugh, like the rest of us.”

Roundtable Discussion on the Anti-Christ: Michael Phelps or Barack Obama? – Part 1

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time (and his Elijah List parady was good). Tears are still streaming down my face now, so thank you Fake Kenneth Copeland Blog for this http://kennethcopeland.blogspot.com/ !

“Who is the Anti-Christ? I recently posed that very question to a panel of some of the biggest names in Christian ministry. Typically, I keep this kind of information confidential, or put it on a CD and charge $7.99 for shipping and handling. But I’m feeling real generous today. So sit back and enjoy:

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Well, I guess I’ll just throw it out there and get your responses. Here’s the question: Who is the Anti-Christ?

John Hagee: It’s Obama bin Laden. No doubt in my mind.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Don’t you mean, Barack Obama?

John Hagee: Oh, I’m sorry, Ken. Yes, Obama.

Creflo Dollar: Why, because he’s black?

John Hagee: Touchy, eh? No, Creflo, it has nothing to do with his blackness. It’s because he is a Muslim.

Creflo Dollar: Where, in the Bible, does it say the Anti-Christ will be a Muslim?

John Hagee: Are we limiting our answers to what’s in Scripture? Is that in the rules, Ken? Because if it is, well, that’s a problem. Help me out here, brother.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: I’m sorry, Creflo, but I think I’m gonna have to side with John on this. Heck, if we’re sticking to the Bible, this is gonna be a very short conversation.

John Hagee: That’s right. You know that whole “dual covenant” thing? I just made that up! And before you go casting stones, Creflo, the words “bling, bling” don’t appear anywhere in the Bible.

Joyce Meyer: Boys, can we please get back to the subject at hand? I’ve studied this out and I’m pretty darn sure that Michael Phelps is the Anti-Christ.

Paula White: You think so? Oh, he’s a hottie!

John Hagee: Both of you, shut up. I have high-level sources in the Knesset, as well as our own State Department, who tell me Osama is definitely our man.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Obama! O-B-A-M-A!

Benny Hinn: I heard that boy’s worth $40 million. My people are already in touch. Ha!

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Michael Phelps, you mean?

Benny Hinn: That’s right.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Okay, Joyce…I’ll bite. Why do you think Michael Phelps is the Anti-Christ?

Joyce Meyer: Well, first of all let’s take a look at his birthdate. Michael Phelps was born on June 30. Not counting the zero, that would be represented numerically as 6/3. Now let’s look at his height. Wikipedia says he’s 6′ 4″, but that’s wrong. It’s actually 6′ 3″. All right, so let’s add all that up: 6+3+6+3. Expressed another way, that would be 6+6+6. Ergo, Michael Phelps is the beast.

Benny Hinn: Okay, but what about the $40 million?

Joyce Meyer: Not a problem. My accountants have been looking into that. Actually, he’s worth $39 million. What’s nine minus three, Benny?

Benny Hinn: Six?

Joyce Meyer: Very good. Here’s something else to look at. We all know Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, don’t we? And who is the most powerful angel in the Bible?

Bob Jones: Emma?

Joyce Meyer: No, Grandpa…it’s Michael.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: That’s pretty impressive, Joyce, especially for a little lady.

Joyce Meyer: I’m gonna ignore that last comment, although I must say that’s pretty funny, coming from you, Ken. Here’s the clincher. Look at Revelation 13:1. It says: “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.” Did you get that, guys? Coming out of the sea. Hello? Michael Phelps is a swimmer!

Paula White: I have a picture of him swimming in the ocean.

Joyce Meyer: And, of course, then there’s his connection to the Olympics. As you know, the Olympic Games are closely associated with paganism and idolotry.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Really?

Joyce Meyer: Absolutely. And for the first hundred years or so, anyone participating in the games had to do so without a shred of clothing.

Bob Jones: Were there women? Naked women?

Paula White: Personally, I think Christians are entirely too uptight about the whole nudity thing. The human form is a thing of beauty. It’s God’s design.

John Hagee: I have never heard such a load of crap in all my life. Michael Phelps isn’t even a Muslim.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Okay, give it your best shot, John. What about Obama?

John Hagee: First of all, Obama is a Muslim. Now, think about that. He’s a Muslim. That is really, really bad. Remember the World Trade Center? Does the phrase “9/11″ mean anything to you guys, or have you already forgotten?

Benny Hinn: But Obama claim to be a Christian, doesn’t he?

John Hagee: Exactly!

Benny Hinn: What?

John Hagee: Don’t you see? That’s exactly what he wants us to believe. He’s trying to hide his Muslimness so he can take over the United States.

Jack Van Impe: You guys make me sick. Can I bring out my charts now, Ken?

John Hagee: Here’s something else. What do you call the absence of light?

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Darkness?

John Hagee: Bingo!

Creflo Dollar: What are you saying?

John Hagee: Well, black is the color of darkness. Not that there’s anything wrong with being black per se. I’m just saying Osama doesn’t look like the founding fathers. In the Bible, black is always associated with evil.

Creflo Dollar: You, sir, are a racist!

John Hagee: I have almost 144,000 friends in Israel who would beg to differ.

Paula White: Well, I think Obama is a very handsome man. Even if he is the Anti-Christ.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: What’s his net worth, John?

John Hagee: I thought you’d never ask. It’s $15 million.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: I see. Benny, can you run those numbers?

Benny Hinn: Sure, Ken. 1+5=6. Wow! He’s right.

Paula White: I heard he was having trouble in his marriage.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Shut up, Paula! Now, what about his birthday, John? Anything on that?

John Hagee: Actually there is, Ken. It’s very interesting. Osama was born on August 4, 1961. If we break that down numerically, it looks like this: 8/4/1961. We ran that through our computers a few million times, came up with nothing. But then the Lord began to speak to my spirit in an audible voice, and said: “You know, the Anti-Christ is evil, but he’s also very smart. Try looking at it a different way.” So here’s what I came up with: 8/4=2. Simple division, right? Then 2 x 19=38. That’s the multiplication part. Then 38 + 61=99. Division, multiplication, and addition. Doh! That’s the way Satan always works. Expressed as a single equation, it is: ((8/4) x 19) + 61 = 99.

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Ninety-nine?

John Hagee: Well, yea, but stay with me, Ken. You’ve got to think like Satan. Satan always perverts. Say that with me: Satan Always Perverts. What is 99 upside down?

Fake Kenneth Copeland: Oh, my gosh. You’re right!

John Hagee: And get this: Osama’s middle name is Hussein.

Jack Van Impe: According to my chart, Sadam Hussein will be raised from the dead on June 6, 2006.

Paula White: Does anyone know how old Michael Phelps is? Is he over 21?

Bob Jones: I smell vanilla.

[End of Panel Discussion: Part One]

A Deep Age Old Theological Question

“Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?”

Article From This Site here 

Kierkegaard: Just because a chicken crosses the road it does not mean he is on the other side 

Tillich: The chicken had the courage to be on the other side of the road 

Qohelet: Crossing the road is meaningless 

Mark: Immediately the chicken crossed the road 

Luther: There I stood 

Hebrew writer: The LORD made his road straight. 

Calvin: The chicken was predestined to cross the road (I’m sure no one saw this one coming) 

Arminius: The chicken chose to cross the road (ditto above) 

Descartes: I cross; therefore, I am. 

Job: Consider the chicken, Were you there when it first crossed the road? 

Paul of Tarsus: The chicken does not understand what it does. The chicken does not want to cross the road. It does what it does not want to do, but what it hates to do. Who will save him from this life of road-crossing?!? 

Jesus: Before the chicken crossed the road: I Am 

John of Patmos: This is the message we have received concerning the chicken: he has crossed the road and there is no darkness in him 

MLK: The chicken had a dream of a mountain top from where he could see the other side of the road 

Feminist Theologian: Typical patriarchy. I know you mean a rooster. Why can’t it be a hen? 

Liberation Theologian: Because poor people were on the other side

Jim West: Lord Zwingli commanded him, “Cross!” And the dilettante chicken crossed…away from a homeschool.

John Wesley: “About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change God works in the location of the chicken, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in the chicken alone for nutrition, and an assurance was given me that he had crossed my road, even mine, and saved me from the vegetarian option on the menu.”

Billy Graham: There are four things the chicken wants you to know:

(1) The chicken loves you
(2) The chicken is across the road
(3) Your sins have created the road that separates you from the chicken
(4) The chicken crossed the road to be on your side

Add yours here….

Todd Bentley: The chicken was barking like a dog and I BAMMED him across the road!

Bob Jones: I ordered the chicken to be plucked naked so I can prophesy on how she can cross the road.

The Spiritualist:  To get to the Other Side

Patricia King: He did not need the cross as he went through a portal instead

Todd Bentley (again): To get ’some’ tangible transferable anointing

Lakeland Supporters: We’ll wait to see the fruit, who are you to judge?

Rick Joyner: for the sake of unity

Mike Bickle: Look, I know the chicken prophesied he would cross the ocean last year; but, he’s still growing in the prophetic. He is not a false prophet. We’re all under Grace now. But, don’t take my word for it. Check the scriptures for yourself.

Contemplative prayer practicers: The chicken did not cross the road. He stilled himself before the Lord and listened for His voice. Then the chicken had vision that he had been carried across the road by the Lord. Even though he did not move, the chicken was moved by his vision and felt that he had already crossed the road.

Todd Bentley: The chicken was in the front pew just worshiping, and the angel said, kick it in the face. So I did and it..I swear this is true, it fell under the anointing and levitated to the other side.

KIM CLEMENT (3 days before the crossing of the road by the chicken): The Lord tells me that in no uncertain terms that the chicken will NEVER cross that road. Wow, the prophetic word is really flowing tonight.

BENNY HINN: Well, of course my chicken is going to need a $12,000 gold-plated wagon to get across the road. You don’t expect him to cross in an old wheelbarrow while doing the Lord’s work, do you?

PAUL AND JAN CROUCH: Listen, beloved, if you want the message of the chicken to continue, please sow your best chicken seed RIGHT NOW!

BILL CLINTON: Yeah, I saw that chicken….Nice legs.

COLONEL SANDERS: BURP

MIRIAM FRANKLIN: When I see all this hyper-active, fleshly signs-oriented road crossing that tries to pass itself off as a move of God, I have to ask where do we find any of this in God’s Word.

KIM CLEMENT (3 days after the crossing of the road by the chicken): I know many of you have misinterpreted my earlier prophecy concerning the chicken, and it just goes to show little you understand how the prophetic works. (PS, the government has asked me to remove the chicken prophecy due to national security concerns)

David Pawson: The chicken is not biblical so it is fairly uncertain wheter it crossed the road or not. The chicken may not have been at all.

Jesus: Because the chicken believed in me “I am The Way, The truth and The Life.”

Rick Warren: The chicken needs a purpose for crossing the road.

Chuck Pierce: In the hebrew calendar this is a year of new crossings for the chicken

Kenneth Copeland  I stood in agreement with him so the chicken crossed the road to me

Creflo Dollar The chicked sowed his seed to build a bridge to cross the road

Chuck Pierce: June is the Hebraic month of Tammuz, a TIME OF SEEING! God plans to give his people A NEW VISION of THE GLORY REALM and A RENEWED PURPOSE! I sense A POULTRY INVASION INTO THE ASPHALT REALM, and many chickens shall be relocated into GREATER ANOINTINGS!

Watchman: Well the chicken thought he was jumping into the river to ‘get with it’ … and when he regained consciousness, he realised that he was off the other side of the straight and narrow path.

The Self Proclaimed Prophet: He didn’t cross the road; God wouldn’t have made another side without running it by him first.

The Doubter: He didn’t, there was no other side except his

Brian Fenimore: Lately in my Christian experience, the Lord’s been developing this theme about the Chicken crossing the road.

Kris Vallotton: So, howmannyofya know that the chicken crossed the road?? That was a good joke right there.

John Piper: The Chicken is most glorified when I am most satisfied in him.

Mike Bickle: Beloved, The Chicken crossed the road.

Bill Johnson: The Chicken got what I deserved, so that I could get what he deserved.

Georgian Banov: Woooooah. ha ha ha ha. Shiggi. So, I was drinking the word the other day, and I read this verse “and the chicken crossed the road.” It’s just so funny, you know … God’s really funny.

Televangelist: Are you willing to cross the road and sow that $1,000 seed?

Kennith “Daddy” Haggin: The Chicken had the authority to cross the road.

John: And behold, I saw a seven headed beast with the resemblance of a Chicken which crossed a great black divide. The Angel then poured out the fifth bowl upon the earth….

Fundamentalist: In the King James Bible, it says “the Chicken that pisseth against the wall crossed the road.” All those other per-versions like your sissy NIV say “the chicken crossed the road.” So, everyone who doesn’t read the KJV is going to hell……….

Speaker in Toronto: he he he…. alright lets get into the word. Verse 7. And the Chicken crossed the road. Woahhh….. ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa *Audience laughs for 20 minutes*

Rick Warren: It was a purpose driven chicken.

Bob Jones: So, a purple colored 6 headed chicken appeared to me one day in ma’ living room’ and says to me ………

Todd Bentley: The chicken will cross the road when I allow it too

Atheist: I don’t believe there is a chicken.

Agnostic: There’s no way to prove there is or isn’t a chicken crossing the road.

Emergent Church Crowd: Brian McLaren was there

Juanita Bynum: Who Cares? There was Money there

Traditionalist: They followed the path of those before

Pentecostal: He did not want to touch God’s anointed

Sadducee: There is no other side

Charismatic: It felt Good

Hippie: It was far out

Pioneer: To Blaze a Glorious Trail

March for Jesus: To reclaim the land

Roman Catholic: It does not matter, all roads to Rome

Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Marilyn Hickey etc:  To avoid Senator Grassley

Joel Osteen:  Urr…. it is not why  you should focus on but how  the chicken went! He went in his gold plated private jet. God wants the chicken’s best life now. 

Paula White: to get cosmetic surgery. She’s not a spring chicken anymore.

C Peter Wagner and the New Apostles:  We are the road.

Religious abuse and cult like tendencies far too common in mainstream church

The following article is awful BUT not that surprising as if you make it less extreme, I can recognise certain big name ‘Christian’ leaders in the place of cult leader Jiri Adam. There is the same character traits and spiritual abuse, albeit much less extreme and far more seductive in much of the wider church and its leaders.

Authoritarian, sexually abusive and promiscuous and often perverted, spiritually abusive, overly-controlling, silencing – touch not my anointed, domineering as elite anointed gods to the people and lording it over the flock as untouchables, and money grabbing and yet more money grabbing. This following description from the article: ‘They slaved from dawn to dusk building Adam and his wife a luxury home and another house where he had his cult chapel.’   could easily apply to many congregants of the ‘mainstream’ pulpit pimps like Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, E Bernard Jordan, Rev Ike, Paula White, Peter Popoff, Benny Hinn, Juanita Bynum, Thomas Weeks etc – the list goes on and on, through various grades of depravity and selfishness, albeit add in the multiple waterfront mansions, the fleet of gold plated airplanes used for personal holidays, and the luxury commodes and the line of luxury cars. 

The sexual misconduct charge could also be applied to many ministers – I could reel off several big names who have fallen this year, in mainstream churches, who have not just commited adultery with one woman (bad enough), but with multiple women, sometimes against their will or at the very least co-erced via pastoral persuasion, and some who have also beaten these women to disciple them, usually when they were nude. It is not just the Roman Catholic church who has child sexual abuse scandals. Just last week a pastor in, I think Texas, was caught out soliciting sex from a 13 year old girl. An evangelical church not that far from me has an assistant pastor who has abused his daughter for years but nobody will listen. Let’s not forget what ‘prophets’ Bob Jones did with women and Paul Cain did with men ‘in the name of the Lord’. Many more ministers are yet to be exposed including a certain big name prophet. IHOP, whom both Cain and Jones are or were associated with, is getting more and more cultic, young people being told to cut off all contact with their families for at least a year.

The sad thing is, that because the case below is an obvious cult, it will be condemned by the church. Some Christians reading this article may daydream themselves as neighbours to the cult, thinking they would somehow supernaturally know about the horrors and would never put up with it and  would boldly rebuke it and/or report the abuse to the police and rescue these poor people - yet similar (albeit usually less extreme) things go on on their own church doorstep in full sight  and they continually turn a blind eye, even justify it. Church: stop tolerating these things and rid yourself of those who abuse you, and stop allowing yourself to be abused, and stop abusing others! Pastors have forgotten how to be shepherds, and instead are tyrants. And the church does nothing.

“A sect leader kept five women as slaves for 20 years and left them looking like concentration camp victims. One was worked to death and sickened detectives say the starved survivors are like Auschwitz inmates. Police are understood to be questioning the women about any sexual abuse by the cult leader, who called himself “God”.

And while the brutalised victims slaved for him, Jiri Adam, 74, forced them to sign over all their homes, property and cash to him. As they grew older, Adam even plundered their pensions. The self-styled commandant is now facing 12 years in jail on slavery charges.

The secret camp was only discovered when one of the women escaped and tried to get medical treatment. Shocked medics in the Czech city of Brno called in the cops. Police spokesman Oldrich Kriz said of the women: “I would compare their state to that of concentration camp victims in World War II.”

Religious fanatic Adam was a member of the sinister Grail Movement and described himself as his victims’ God. When one neighbour tried to persuade the women to rest, furious Adam raged at him: “We don’t need God here. I’m God.”

Adam recruited the women to his mind-bending cult before making them his personal slaves. They lived in a ramshackle shed on Adam’s land with no lighting, heat or water. They slaved from dawn to dusk building Adam and his wife a luxury home and another house where he had his cult chapel. Any spare time was spent doing back-breaking work on Adam’s vineyard. He gave them only bread and water to live on with just a spoonful of honey for supper. Disobedience was snuffed out by withdrawing food altogether. Doctors say the women may never recover from the muscle wasting caused by starvation.

The secretive Grail Movement are recognised as an official religion in the Czech Republic despite a sinister reputation. Last year, they were involved in a child abuse scandal when a follower was arrested for keeping her eight-year-old son chained in a dungeon.”

Daily Record, May 29, 2008

The Grail Movement follows the teachings of Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, a German also known as Abd-ru-shin, who from 1923-38 wrote the Grail Message, which depicts man as a being whose spirit can return to its source in heaven by performing good deeds on Earth. It claims to have at least 10,000 followers worldwide, including several hundred in Britain.

The gospel of bling bling – Creflo Dollar – get rich quick

There is an interesting video here on word faith, seed faith and the prosperity gospel:   Creflo Dollar has some pad, not to mention some cheek!

I heard an interesting comment yesterday. A church leader has an expensive mortgage taken out on his church property. Although he dislikes the prosperity message, he said: ‘If I preach the simple gospel, the people will not come and I will not be able to afford to repay the mortgage.  But if I preach the prosperity message, the people will come and I get many bottoms on seats and enough offerings to pay all the bills.’

One has to ask him then, what is the point of having a church at all if he has to compromise and/or even apostasise and cannot preach the true God-pleasing gospel but a pagan man pleasing one? Surely his focus should be on Jesus anyway, and winning true disciples, to be spiritual minded and servants- not focussed on how many greedy, worldly minded, unspiritual, money obsessed, self absorbed, selfish, undiscipled people fill his seats.

‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God….then all the things you need [not necessarily want] will be given to you. Don’t worry about or run after them like the pagans do.’ said Jesus.

I John 2:15-17  Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

I John 3:17  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

A picture tells a thousand words (2) prophetic art re the third wave healing revival

 

Following on from http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/todd-bentley-the-third-wave-a-picture-speaks-a-thousand-words/ here’s another one.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Ministries

Based on MinistryWatch.com, the following ministries have demonstrated little or no transparency with regard to their finances, and should thus not be supported. The bottom list in italics are all good ministries.

African Children Welfare, Foundation Culver City, CA

Amazing Facts, Rocklin, CA

Benny Hinn Ministries / World Outreach Church Irving, TX

Bible Broadcasting Network. Charlotte, NC

Breakthrough Ministries / Rod Parsley Columbus, OH

Quiet Hour, Redlands, CA

Revival Ministries International, Tampa, FL

Your Story Hour, Berrien Springs, MI

Children’s Survival Fund, Inc. Missouri City, TX

Christian Mens Network, Inc. Grapevine, TX

Creflo Dollar Ministries, College Park, GA

Crystal Cathedral Ministries, Garden Grove, CA

East Gates Ministries International, Sumner, WA

Ever Increasing Faith Ministries/Fred Price, Los Angeles, CA

Goad International, Orlando, FL

Gods News Behind the News St Petersburg, FL

High Adventure Ministries, Inc. Simi Valley, CA

Impact Productions Tulsa, OK

Joy of Jesus, Inc. Detroit, MI

Jubilee Network/KFUO AM 850 St Louis, MO

Kenneth Copeland Ministries Newark, TX

Kenneth Hagin Ministries Tulsa, OK

Lesea, Inc. South Bend, IN

Manna International Relief and Development, Redwood City, CA

March for Jesus Richmond, VA

Metro Ministries International, Brooklyn, NY

Prophetic Image Expressions/Kim Clement Lewisville, TX

THE FOLLOWING ARE ALL GOOD MINISTRIES (ACCORDING TO MINISTRY WATCH) ON THE OTHER HAND, IN TERMS OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY, IF NOT ALWAYS IN DOCTRINE 

Ankerberg Theological Research Institute

Answers in Genesis

Bible Study Fellowship

Care Net

Child Evangelism Fellowship

Children’s Hunger Fund

Christian Medical and Dental Associations

Compassion International

Crown Financial Ministries

EvanTell

Family Guidance

Family Research Council

Gideons International

Good News Jail and Prison Ministry

International Aid

JAARS

The Jesus Film Project

Jews for Jesus

Joni and Friends

Josh McDowell Ministries

New Directions International

New Tribes Mission

Northwest Medical Teams International

Operation Blessing

Prison Fellowship Ministries

Probe Ministries International

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

Voice of the Martyrs

World Help

Young Life

 

 

Suffering for the prosperity gospel

‘Is the “Prosperity Gospel” facing a recession?’  Joey McLeister asks in the Star Tribune, dated Feb 17th. McLeister continues on, ‘With donations dwindling, Mac Hammond, the high-flying pastor of Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, says his private jet is for sale.’

Poor lamb, Mac Hammond must really be suffering. I am sure the people in Darfur can really identify with this so-called minister of the ‘gospel’’s pains.

McLesiter continues: ‘This comes amid an investigation by the U.S. Senate into some of Hammond’s contemporaries — including one who leads a church where Hammond serves on the board — and allegations that some ministers may have improperly solicited funds for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee during a conference at which Hammond spoke.

Living Word has also cut its hour long TV show on Sunday mornings in half to save money, according to the Rev. Brian Sullivan, spokesman for the church.

Living Word has fallen $40,000 to $70,000 short of its weekly budget in recent months.

“We publicly acknowledge we are going through some financial challenges, and we’re just adjusting our budget to reflect that and to live within our means,” said Sullivan. “I think it’s going to be an austere budget year for us.’

But where is his faith? Why doesn’t he just seed a large donation, cast his bread upon the waters and it is bound to return with much more dough, right?  Hammond can send his ’seed’ to me if he likes, (if he has enough faith that is) and if he does not want to get his well-polished designer shoes dirty by going into the ghetto and giving his money to people who actually need it. There he could divert the offerings he and his cohorts steal from God and His people week in and week out,  the same offerings he skims not just the fat from, but also the meat and bone - just like the crooked priests in the Old Testament who kept the choicest cuts of the meat for themselves and robbed God, but even more audacious and greedy. This money could go to where they should actually be going instead of funding private jets for Hammond’s lavish lifestyle: that is feeding the poor, the widows and orphans, while obeying and pleasing God in the process so that the glory of God can be the church’s rear guard and true miracles appear. But I forgot, ’sowing a financial seed’ does not work that way around, does it, as he and his buddies, the darlings of the evangelical world like Kenneth Copeland darn well know. It only works, so they say, when the money is sown to them. Why? Go figure – because seed faith is a SCAM, a crooked and perverted teaching of man for man’s enrichment.)

“Is that a product of recession, or is that a product of maybe some bad publicity in the church in general? We speculate it’s a combination of things,” Hammond said.

So what if there is an economic recession or all the world is against you. If it is a genuine spiritual principle set by God then it will work regardless of circumstances, as God is not a man that he should lie, oh son of man, Or you just a fair weather Christian, Hammond? Where’s your faith, man? Oh yes, in your bank balance, where your heart also lies. No wonder your faith is suffering then, you poor lamb, I mean, wolf. The Lord rebuke you!

I thank God for Sen. Grassley.

Creflo Dollar on overcoming in life

I watched a video of Creflo Dollar (who expouses extreme prosperity teaching as well as other heresies – which make him extremely prosperous at least), talking about Jesus’s ministry while He was on earth. A clip of it what Dollar said is here http://biblelight.net/Creflo-Dollar-2.html. 

Creflo Dollar said that because Jesus sometimes got ‘tired’, He had not learned how to be fully perfect, or got a completely full grip on life or the kingdom, or obtained enlightenment on all the kingdom secrets, or indeed moved in His full authority as He should have taken authority over tiredness. If Jesus had been fully perfect, He wouldn’t have ever got tired and could have overcome this tiredness by using His kingdom authority, just as other men ’gods’ (ie: we) can now.

Tiredness and the need for sleep is such a huge part of humanity and part of God’s intelligent design in creation even in animals and birds, that if a man could overcome it while on earth, wow, it would be huge! Just think about how much more we could do having an extra eight hours a day or so to do things in, and the rest of the time feeling as fresh as a daisy not dogged by these human constraints.

Perhaps Jesus should have bought some of Creflo Dollar’s books and DVDS and then maybe He’d have ‘got’ it, as well as overcome and taken authority over being hung on the cross – silly Jesus not realising this, and not walking in His full victory as a believer! If only Creflo had been around two thousand years ago to put Jesus right then things could have turned out so differant! But at least, according to Creflo Dollar, Jesus ’wore designer suits, honey’, so Jesus got that  part of His ministry right!

Here is the written text of what Creflo Dollar said about Jesus not being fully wise or fully perfect:

‘But Jesus didn’t show up perfect, he grew into his perfection. You know Jesus, in one scripture in the Bible he went on a journey, and he was tired. You better hope God don’t get tired. Isaiah 50 says, 50, 60, somewhere, says where we have a God who fainteth not, neither is weary (Isa. 40:28). But Jesus did, if he came as God and he got tired, he says he sat down by the well ’cause he was tired. Boy we’re in trouble. And somebody said, well, Jesus came as God. Well how many of you know the Bible says God never sleeps, nor slumbers. And yet in the book of Mark we see Jesus asleep in the back of the boat.

Y’all please listen to me, please listen to me. This ain’t no heresy. I am not some false prophet, I am just reading this thing out to you the Bible. I am just telling you all these fantasy preachers have been preaching all of this stuff for all of these years and we bought the package. And the question mark was there. And we are now – faith can never go past that question mark, and we’ve tolerated and put it up, put up with things that we had authority over..’

What total ignorance Creflo Dollar has of what God coming as a man really meant, or what the gospel really is. How dare this blasphemer claim that Jesus, the eternal Living Word, through Whom all living things were created, knew less than Creflo Dollar. How dare he! And how dare he distort the gospel to claim that we do not need to sleep and can become as supermen gods who do not get tired.

While flashing his designer clothes and expensive gold rolexes, Dollar spits forth this vile teaching and makes a fortune by leading the ignorant astray. Yet Peter, who had been with Jesus several years (the Jesus who according to Dollar wore designer clothes and taught prosperity teaching), said to the lame man at the temple gates: ‘Silver and Gold I do not have…’   Peter was with John the beloved at the time, the disciple who had leant against Christ’s chest to hear his very heartbeat. Yet John, perhaps the most deep and prophetic of the disciples, did not rebuke Peter for having no money or correct him and say: ‘Why are you not walking in victory brother? God wants you rich! I’ll give the beggar my money instead as a seed, and you see how my seed faith offering multiplies my bank balance and you can then learn from it for future….’

These apostles, testimony to the Living Word who had dwelt among them, were not walking in the mammon centred ‘victory’ of Creflo Dollar and his cronies, which is nothing but a false promise and a scam anyway. But they did have something Dollar and his like do not have – which is real power. Real spiritual power. And this they FREELY gave to the world (without an offering being taken) and so a man crippled since birth walked for the first time ever. The man did not need money, he needed a miracle.

‘And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.  When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene– walk!” (Acts 3:2-6)

Real signs and wonders do not come with money – quite the opposite – and do not produce it, which the false prophet Simon the Sorceror did not understand either. Signs and wonders come through knowing and being with the Living Word, and understanding the truth of the gospel and the power of His name. But one cannot understand the power of His name without understanding who He really was and who He is and who He is to come and what He achieved through His death and resurrection – what the true gospel, the good news, is all about. Many in the church do not know the gospel or who Christ truly is. They know ridiculous distortions and heresies or bland pulp theology promoted by the Joel Osteens’ of this world so they may ‘believe in Jesus’ but do not know what they believe and it is thus another Jesus – an imposter – they are led to.

Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness… and THEN all the material things you need, that the world covets and chases after, will be given to you by God. Just as He feeds the sparrows, He will feed and clothe you and provide you with what you actually need (not necessarily what you covet after and do not need). But Creflo Dollar, Juanita Bynum, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland et al seek first the money and the material things,  having a love of money that John the beloved rebuked in 1 John and said did not come from the true anointing, while forgetting about righteousness and truth. Many like them willfully and deliberately mislead the flock for their own selfish ends. To that extent it is kingdom now theology they believe in - but their own kingdom on earth now and not God’s eternal one. The fools!