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Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff
- A thorough examination of the Word Faith movement. The first chapter is a
humorous fable
composed from quotes and beliefs of various Faith teachers. The remainder of
the book is an
analysis of various doctrines of the Faith movement. Very well indexed.
Also available on
audiocassette.
ISBN 1565076966The first chapter...
The following tale is a composite of the erroneous teachings of individuals like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Frederick Price, and many others. While not all the Faith teachers hold to every aspect of this tale, the have all made substantial contributions to both the production and proliferation of these aberrations and heresies.
nce upon a time, long long ago, on a faraway planet,1 there lived a good God. This God was very much like you and me—a Being who stands about 6'2" to 6'3", weighs a couple of hundred pounds, and has a handspan of about 9 inches.2
God's wisdom and power were so great that He could visualize beautiful images and then turn the images into reality3 by utilizing a special power called the force of faith.4
One day this God had a cosmic brainstorm. He decided to use the force of His faith to create something superb and special.5 He decided to bring a whole new world into existence.6 This was not going to be just any old world; it was going to be the most fantastic world imaginable. In fact, this world would become so wonderful that it would feature an exact duplicate of the Mother Planet where God lived.7
After carefully visualizing every detail of this wonderful world, God went into action. Releasing the force of His faith like a whirlwind, God spoke into existence the planet He saw in His mind's eye.8 And was God excited! Looking down with fondness on this classic new creation, He named it planet Earth.
But this was only the beginning. Suddenly a host of brilliant new ideas began to flood God's creative consciousness. He began to visualize vast oceans and springs abounding with water. He saw magnificent mountains and fertile fields. His mind produced flashes of thunder and lightning. Plants, flowers, and trees blazed in rapid succession through His thoughts. God began to visualize life replete with beautiful birds and creatures of every size and shape.
Yet there was much more to come, for after five days of vivid visualizations, God's mind moved into yet another dimension. On day six, in His mind's eye, God saw the crowning jewel of His creation. As the details coalesced in His mind, God suddenly found Himself focused on an exact duplicate of Himself.9
So God spoke, and suddenly out of the pristine soil of planet Earth there arose another god--a god spelled with a small "g," but a god nonetheless.10 As the image of this little god11 took form, God saw that He had outdone Himself. For there, before His eyes, stood another god--with a body just like His own, including size and shape.12
God finally had done it! He had thought the unthinkable, and by His Word of faith God had created a creature that was not even subordinate to Himself.13
But was God ever glad, for now He had a colleague whose nature was identical to His own--a god who could think like Him, be like Him, and do almost (but not quite) everything that He could do. God called His carbon copy "Adam," and gave him complete dominion and authority over the entire creation.14 This creature had so much power that his Creator could not do anything in the earth realm without first obtaining his permission.15
Adam was truly a super-being! He could fly like the birds and swim underwater like a fish. And that's not all. Even without a space suit, Adam could fly through the universe. In fact, with a single thought he could transport himself to the moon!16
Yet, even after creating a super-being like Adam, God was not fully satisfied. Somehow He just knew that a piece of the puzzle was missing. So, putting His mind into action, God began brainstorming once more.
In a flash it dawned on Him. Adam was made in His image, so obviously he must be as much female as he was male. So why not separate the male part from the female part? Not willing to waste a single moment, God charged into action! Causing a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, God opened him up, removed the female part from the male part, and made a being of surpassing beauty. He made woman--man with a womb--and called the womb-man "Eve."17
But this time God had gone too far, for He had brought into existence the very beings who would one day get Him thrown off the new planet He had created. As incredible as it may seem, these super-beings would one day soon turn on their Creator and relegate Him to the status of the greatest failure of all time.
You see, long before God had visualized planet Earth into existence, He had also created another world full of beings called angels. One of these angels was a being of such breathtaking beauty and brilliance that he was named "Lucifer," the Morning Star.
Lucifer had great ambitions. In fact, he wanted to take control of everything God had ever created; he wanted to become exactly like the Most High. Lucifer tried to overthrow God with the power of words, but ended up losing.18 Because of his treason, Lucifer was cast out of heaven and was renamed "Satan," the deceiver.
Tumbling from the Mother Planet where God lived, Satan landed on the replica that God had spoken into existence. He landed on planet Earth, where Adam and Eve would one day live. There he lay in wait for the opportunity of the ages, the opportunity to get back at God.
And then, one day, opportunity came knocking. Not long after God had brought Adam and Eve into existence, Satan spied them standing naked in the middle of the Garden of Eden.
Satan instantly transformed himself into a serpent and cunningly tricked the two little gods into committing cosmic treason. For the price of an apple, Adam and Eve sold their godhood to Satan. And the Devil, through Adam, became the god of this world.19
Alas, not only did Adam and Eve lose their nature as gods, but they were infused with the very nature of Satan.20 Adam had become the first person to be born again; he was "born" with the nature of God and "born again" with the nature of Satan.21
In one blinding instant, the first man and woman were transformed from divine to demonic, becoming susceptible to sin, sickness, suffering--and, more importantly, spiritual death. In fact, Eve's body (which was originally designed to give birth out of the side), underwent a radical transformation. From that moment on, she and her female offspring would bring forth children from the lower region of their anatomies.22
In that fateful moment, Adam and Eve were barred from Eden and God was banished from the earth. Satan now had legal rights to the earth and all her inhabitants,23 and God was left on the outside desperately searching for a way to get back in.24
God, in a flash, had become the greatest failure of all time. Not only had He lost His top-ranking angel as well as at least a third of His other angels, but now He had also lost the first man, the first woman, and the earth and all its fullness!25
But God was not yet ready to throw in the towel. Realizing that He needed man's invitation to get back into the earth, God immediately went to work. After thousands of years God finally found a man named Abraham, who took the bait and became the vehicle through which God, if He was lucky, might one day win back the world He had lost.26
Through Abraham a second Adam would eventually come who, if all went according to plan, would return to man his godhood and to God His good earth.
Abraham could well have told God to "buzz off."27 Instead, he decided to buy into God's deal. In fact, God and Abraham became blood brothers.28 They forged a covenant that would gain Abraham health and wealth, and regain for God a foothold in the world He had created.29 God's plan was to make Abraham the father of all nations and to produce from his seed another Adam who would regain the turf lost by the first Adam.
In keeping with His Word, God made Abraham very, very wealthy. Then, once again. He proceeded to visualize. Through God's mind raced images of a brand new Adam--a man who would one day restore Him to His rightful place in the universe and who would forever banish His archrival, Satan, from the kingdom.
And then it happened! One day the image of this Savior coalesced in God's mind. Without hesitation, God began speaking into existence the picture of the Redeemer He had painted on the canvas of His consciousness.30 Excitedly, God positively confessed, "The Messiah is coming, the Messiah is coming!"31
As God's Spirit hovered over a young woman named Mary, the confession began to take shape before His very eyes.32 The spoken Word became legs, arms, eyes, and hair. And then suddenly there emerged the body of the second Adam.33
The second Adam was named Jesus. As Abraham's descendant, Jesus was wealthy and prosperous. He lived in a big house.34 handled big money35 and even wore designer clothes.36 In fact, Jesus was so wealthy that He needed a treasurer to keep track of all His money.37
Jesus, who was a whiz at speaking things into existence,38 showed His disciples how to master the art of positive confession.39 Thus they too enjoyed unlimited health and wealth. Some of His followers caught on so well that they became rich beyond comprehension. The apostle Paul, for example, had so much money that government officials would work feverishly to try to get a bribe out of him.40
Jesus also overcame every trick and temptation that Satan could throw His way. Even though He never claimed to be God, Jesus succeeded in living a life of sinless perfection.41 When all was said and done, Jesus passed the test that the first Adam had failed.
And then, in the prime of His life, Jesus entered a garden--a garden much like Eden, where the first Adam had lost his godhood. In this garden, called Gethsemane, Jesus moved into the final stages of a process that would transform Him from an immortal man to a satanic being42 and would, in turn, recreate men as little gods43 who would no longer be subject to the scourge of sin, sickness, and suffering.44
As part of the process, Jesus would have to die a double death on the cross. He would have to die spiritually as well as physically. If physical death had been enough, the two thieves on the cross could have atoned for the sins of mankind.45 No, the real key was spiritual death and suffering in hell.
One day, upon a cruel cross, the crystal Christ-the paragon of virtue--was transformed into a defiled demoniac. The lamb became a serpent46 and was ushered into the very bowels of the earth. There Christ was tortured by Satan and his minions.47 And all hell laughed.48
Little did Satan know, however, that the last laugh would be on him. For just as Adam had fallen for Satan's trap in Eden, now Satan had fallen for God's trap in hell.49
You see, Satan had blown it on a technicality. He had dragged Jesus into hell illegally.50 Satan had completely forgotten to consider that Jesus had not actually sinned. Jesus had merely become sin as a result of the sin of others. Alas, Satan and his demonic hosts had tortured the emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit of Christ without legal rights.51
This was exactly the opening God had been looking for. Seizing the moment, God spoke His faith-filled words into the bowels of the earth. Suddenly the twisted, death-wracked spirit of Jesus began to fill out and come back to life. He began to look like something the Devil had never before seen.52
There, in the sinister presence of the evil one himself, Jesus began to flex His spiritual muscles. As a horde of whimpering demons looked on, Jesus whipped the Devil in his own backyard. He snatched Satan's keys and emerged from hell as a born-again man.53
God had pulled off the coup of the ages. Not only had He tricked Satan out of his lordship by using Jesus as the bait, but He had also caught Satan on a technicality through which Jesus could be born again.
But that's not all. Because Jesus was re-created from a satanic being to an incarnation of God, you too can become an incarnation--as much an incarnation as Jesus Christ of Nazareth!54 And, as an incarnation of God, you can have unlimited health and unlimited wealth--a palace like the Taj Mahal with a Rolls Royce in your driveway.55 You are a little messiah running around on earth!56
All it takes is to recognize your own divinity. You too can harness the force of faith. Never again will you have to pray, "Thy will be done."57 Rather, your Word is God's command.58 By using your tongue to release the force of faith, you can speak whatsoever you desire into existence.59 Then you can live happily ever after on this planet of prosperity.
What you will discover as you read on is so horrifying that your natural inclination may be disbelief or even denial. But I assure you that what I am communicating is not based on hype or sensationalism. Rather, it is painstakingly accurate and thoroughly documented.
So prepare yourself as we descend for awhile into the kingdom of the cults.
2. Kenneth Copeland: See chapter 10, page 121.
3. Charles Capps: "God filled His words with faith to cause the things He said to come into manifestation. There was an image inside Him. He expressed it in words." (The Substance of Things [Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1990], 19.)
4. Kenneth Copeland: "Faith is a power force. It is a tangible force. It is a conductive force." (The Force of Faith [Fort Worth, TX: KCP Publications, 1989], 10.)
5. Charles Capps: "Faith is the substance, the raw material....Faith is the substance that God used to create the universe, and He transported that Faith with His words....Faith is the substance of things, but you can't see faith. Faith is a spiritual force." (Changing the Seen & Shaping the Unseen [Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1980], 14-15.)
6. Jerry Savelle: See chapter 5, page 68.
7. Kenneth Copeland: "You don't think earth was first, do you? Huh? Well, you don't think that God made man in His image, and then made earth in some other image? There is not anything under this whole sun that's new. Are you hearing what I'm saying? This is all a copy. It's a copy of home. It's a copy of the Mother Planet. Where God lives, He made a little one just like His and put us on it." ("Following the Faith of Abraham I" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989], audiotape #01-3001, side 1.)
8. Charles Capps: "He framed the world with His words. You can't build without substance. He took words--faith-Filled words were God's substance. Here, essentially, is what God did. God filled His words with faith. He used His words as containers to hold His faith and contain that spiritual force and transport it out there into the vast darkness by saying 'Light be!' That's the way God transported His faith causing creation and transformation." (Dynamics of Faith & Confession [Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1987], 28-29, emphasis in original.)
9. Charles Capps: "God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. The word likeness in the original Hebrew means " an exact duplication in kind." . . . Adam was an exact duplication of God's kind!" (Authority in Three Worlds [Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1982], 15-16, emphasis in original.)
10. Paul Crouch, speaking to Kenneth Copeland, said: "Somebody said--I don't know who said it--but they claim that you Faith teachers declare that we are gods. You're a god. I'm a god. Small 'g' now, but we are the gods of this world. . . . Well, are you a god--small 'g'?" To this, Jan Crouch, referring to Copeland, enthusiastically exclaimed: "He's gonna say, 'Yes.' I love it." ("Praise the Lord" program on TBN [5 February 1986].)
11. Paul Crouch: "He [God] doesn't even draw a distinction between Himself and us. . . . You know what else that's settled, then, tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the Devil to try and bring dissension within the body of Christ that we are gods. I am a little god! . . . I have His name. I'm one with Him. I'm in covenant relation. 1 am a little god! Critics, be gone!" ("Praise the Lord" program on TBN [7 July 1986].)
12. Kenneth Copeland: "God spoke Adam into existence in authority with words (Gen. 1:26,28). These words struck Adam's body in the face. His body and God were exactly the same size." (Holy Bible, Kenneth Copeland Reference Edition [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1991], 45, emphasis in original.)
13. Kenneth Copeland: "God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself, and in the Garden of Eden He did just that. He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even. . . . Adam is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus. . . . Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh." ("Following the Faith of Abraham I," side 1.)
14. Kenneth E. Hagin: "Originally, God made the earth and the fullness thereof, giving Adam dominion over all the works of His hands. In other words, Adam was the god of this world." (The Believer's Authority, 2d ed. [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1991], 19.)
15. Frederick K.C. Price: "God can't do anything in this earth realm except what we, the body of Christ, allow Him to do. Now that statement is so--that's so--that's so foreign and so contrary to tradition that, like I said, if they could get their hands on me right now most evangelicals would burn me at the stake and dismember me and feed me to the crocodiles, because they'll consider that statement to be just heresy." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [1 May 1992], audiotape #PR11.) Cf. chapter 6, 85.
16. Benny Hinn: "Adam was a super-being when God created him. I don't know whether people know this, but he was the first superman that really ever lived. First of all, the Scriptures declare clearly that he had dominion over the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea--which means he used to fly. Of course, how can he have dominion over the birds and not be able to do what they do? The word 'dominion' in the Hebrew clearly declares that if you have dominion over a subject, that you do everything that subject does. In other words, that subject, if it does something you cannot do, you don't have dominion over it. 1'11 prove it further. Adam not only flew, he flew to space. He was--with one thought he would be on the moon." ("Praise the Lord" program on TBN [26 December 1991].)
17. Kenneth Copeland: "Adam was made in the image of God. He was as much female as he was male. He was exactly like God. Then God separated him and removed the female part. Woman means 'man with the womb.' Eve had as much authority as Adam did as long as they stayed together." (Sensitivity of Heart [Fort Worth, TX: KCP Publications, 1984], 23.)
18. Kenneth Copeland: "He [Lucifer or Satan] tried to use the power of words against God. . . .At that point, their words clashed and God's Word--the Word of a free Spirit, a Spirit with authority--reigned in victory over the word of an angelic power." (The Power of the Tongue [Fort Worth, TX: KCP Publications, 1980], 6-7.)
19. Kenneth E. Hagin: "Adam committed high treason and sold out to Satan, and Satan, through Adam, became the god of this world. Adam didn't have the moral right to commit treason, but he had the legal right to do so." (The Believer's Authority, 19.)
20. Kenneth E. Hagin: "God came down in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden to commune and fellowship with him [Adam]. as he had in the past. And he couldn't find him. He called out to him, 'Adam, where art thou?' And he said, 'I hid myself.' Why? Because of sin. Because, first, sin separates you from God. Secondly, by sinning, by listening to the Devil, he took upon himself the nature of the Devil into his spirit being." ("How Jesus Obtained His Name" [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, n.d.], audiotape #44H01, side 2.)
21. E.W. Kenyon: "Man [i.e., Adam] was actually Born Again when he sinned. That is, he was born of the Devil. He became a partaker of Satanic Nature." (The Father and His Family, 17th ed. [Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1964], 48.)
22. Benny Hinn: "He [the Holy Spirit] says. 'God's original plan is that the woman was to bring forth children out of her side.'. . .Adam gave birth to his wife out of his side. It was sin that turned the thing around. . . . And it was sin that transformed her flesh and her body. When God took the woman out of man, He closed up his rib. But she was created identically as him. In other words, she was created with an opening in her side, and children were supposed to be born. And I get that from the very fact that you'll never see birth spiritually, except from the side." ("Our Position In Christ #5--An Heir of God" [Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Center, 1990], audiotape #A031190-5, side 2.)
23. E.W. Kenyon: "Adam evidently had a legal right to transfer this dominion and authority into the hands of the enemy. God has been obliged through the long period of human history to recognize Satan's legal standing, and legal right and authority, and on this ground, and this only, can we understand the legal side of the Plan of Redemption. . . . Adam had legally transferred to him [Satan] the Authority with which God had invested him." (The Father and His Family, 38-39.)
24. Kenneth Copeland: "God had no avenue of lasting faith or moving in the earth. He had to have covenant with somebody. . . . He had to be invited in, in other words, or He couldn't come. God is on the outside looking in. In order to have any say so in the earth, He's gonna have to be in agreement with a man here." ("God's Covenants With Man II" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985], audiotape #01-4404, side 1.)
25. Kenneth Copeland: "I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is....The biggest one is God....I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least--that's a big loss, man. . . . Now, the reason you don't think of God as a failure is He never said He's a failure. And you're not a failure till you say you're one." ("Praise-a-Thon" program on TBN [April 1988].)
26. Frederick K.C. Price: "Adam, as I said, gave it [the earth] away to the serpent, to the Devil. As a result of it, he got his behind kicked out of the garden. He went out of Eden, out of the garden. He began to wander around, and he has troubles from day one. Now God was out of the business. God was out of the earth realm. God had no more stock in this earth realm. No more. None at all. Nothing He could do. Not a thing in the world He could do. . . .The only way God could get back into this earth realm, He had to have an invitation. Ha-hah! He had to have an invitation. And so, God looked around--saw different men, saw Noah, saw different ones. He gave them a few instructions. They did what He said. So and so and so and so. But, finally, He got to a point where He had His plan ready for operation. And He saw a man named Abraham." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [1 May 1992], audiotape #PR11.)
27. Kenneth Copeland: See chapter 19, 212.
28. E.W. Kenyon: "[A]s soon as they [the parties of the covenant] cut the covenant, they are recognized as blood brothers by others, and they are called the blood brothers....God and Abraham had entered the Covenant....God cut the Covenant with Abraham." (The Blood Covenant [Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1969], 14, 16.)
29. Charles Capps: "in this [the Abrahamic Covenant], God is establishing some legal entry into the earth, and He is giving Abraham access to Himself. . . . This Covenant gave God legal entry into the earth through Abraham....Until that time God was, to a certain extent, still on the outside looking in. He needed a legal entry through man so that He could destroy the works of the Devil who was running rampant on earth. . . . Abraham was God's avenue of entry into the earth." (Authority in Three Worlds, 60-61.)
30. Kenneth Copeland: "Once that [Abrahamic] covenant was established, God began to release His Word into the earth. He began to paint a picture of a Redeemer, a man who would be the manifestation of His Word in the earth." (The Power of' the Tongue, 9.)
31. Kenneth Copeland: "So before Jesus came to the earth, God spoke His Word and then spoke His Word again. How many times did He say the Messiah was coming? It was prophesied over hundreds, even thousands, of years. He kept saying, 'He is coming. He is coming.' The circumstances in the earth made it look as if there was no way He could accomplish it; but He just kept saying it. He would not be moved by what He saw. . . .God would not relent." (Ibid., 9-10.)
32. Kenneth Copeland: "The angels spoke the words of the covenant to her [Mary). She pondered them in her heart, and those words became the seed. And the Spirit of God hovered over her and generated that seed, which was the Word that the angel spoke to her. And there was conceived in her, the Bible says, a holy thing. The Word literally became flesh." ("The Abrahamic Covenant" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985], audiotape #01-4405, side 2.)
33. Benny Hinn: "The Bible says the prophets spoke the Word not knowing what they were saying. But 4000 years passed when the Word became a human being and walked and talked and moved. The spoken Word became a human being. The spoken Word became flesh. The spoken Word got legs on, arms, eyes, hair, a body. And He was no longer saying, 'Thus sayeth the Lord.' He was saying, 'I say unto you.' The Word that was spoken through the lip [sic] of prophets was now walking on the seashore of Galilee. ("Benny Hinn" program on TBN [15 December 1990, emphasis in original]. This message, titled "The Person of Jesus" [delivered during Orlando Christian Center's Sunday morning service on 2 December 1991], comprises Part Four of Hinn's six-part series on "The Revelation of Jesus" [Orlando Christian Center, 1991], videotape #TV-292.)
34. John Avanzini: "Jesus had a nice house, a big house--big enough to have company stay the night with Him at the house. Let me show you His house. Go over to John the first chapter and I'II show you His house. . . . Now, child of God, that's a house big enough to have company stay the night in. There's His house." ("Believer's Voice of Victory" program on TBN [20 January 1991].)
35. John Avanzini: "Jesus was handling big money because that treasurer He had was a thief. Now you can't tell me that a ministry with a treasurer that's a thief can operate on a few pennies. It took big money to operate that ministry because Judas was stealing out of that bag." ("Praise the Lord" program on TBN [15 September 1988].)
36. John Avanzini: "John 19 tells us that Jesus wore designer clothes. Well, what else you gonna call it? Designer clothes--that's blasphemy. No, that's what we call them today. I mean, you didn't get the stuff He wore off the rack. It wasn't a one-size-fits-all deal. No, this was custom stuff. It was the kind of a garment that kings and rich merchants wore. Kings and rich merchants wore that garment." "Believer's Voice of Victory" program on TBN [20 January 1991].)
37. Frederick K C. Price: "The Bible says that He [Jesus] had a treasurer--a treasury (they called it "the bag"); that they had one man who was the treasurer, named Judas Iscariot; and the rascal was stealing out of the bag for three-and-a-half years and nobody knew that he was stealing. You know why? Because there was so much in it, He couldn't tell. Nobody could tell that anything was missing. If He had three oranges in the bottom of the bag and he stole two of them, don't tell me He wouldn't know that some was missing. Beside that, if Jesus didn't have anything, what do you need a treasury for? A treasury is for surplus. It's not for that which you're spending. It's only for surplus--to hold it until you need to spend it. Therefore, He must have had a whole lot that needed to be held in advance that He wasn't spending. So He must have had more than He was living on." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [23 November 1990].)
38. Charles Capps: "Notice that when Jesus said, 'I have finished the work' [John 17:4], we know that He had nor finished the work. But I want you to catch something in the way He prayed and the way He talked--He spoke the end results. He never spoke what was. He never admitted death or defeat. . . . Jesus was speaking the end results in His prayer to the Father." (Authority in Three Worlds, 258-.59, emphasis in original.)
39. Kenneth Hagin: "Jesus used the fig tree to demonstrate that He had that God-kind of faith, then He said to the disciples--and to us--'You have that kind of faith.'...Jesus said He had the God-kind of faith; He encouraged His disciples to exercise that kind of faith; and He said that 'whosoever' could do it. . . . That is why Jesus said, 'whosoever shall say . . . and shall not doubt IN HIS HEART.' " (Having Faith in Your Faith [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1988], 3, emphasis in original.)
40. John Avanzini: .'You don't think these Apostles didn't walk around with money? I mean, they had money. I just thank God that I saw this and gave up the denominational line and got on God's line before I starved me and all my family to death. Go to Acts 24. 1 mean. you don't think there wasn't money in this Paul's life!. . . Paul had the kind of money that people, that government officials, would, would block up justice to try to get a bribe out of old Paul." ("Believer's Voice of Victory" program on TBN [20 January 1991].)
41. Kenneth Copeland (through whom Jesus allegedly delivered the following prophecy): "They crucified Me [Jesus] for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him [the Father] and that He was in Me." ("Take Time to Pray," Believer's Voice of Victory 15, 2 [February 1987]:9.)
42. E.W. Kenyon: "Jesus was conceived without sin. His body was not mortal. His body did not become mortal until the Father laid our sin nature upon Him when He hung on the cross. The moment that He became sin, His body became mortal, only then could He die. When this happened. spiritual death, the nature of Satan, took possession of His Spirit....He was to partake of Spiritual Death, the nature of the Adversary. . . .Jesus knew that the moment had come, and He was to he made Sin. He must partake of that dread nature of the Adversary. His body would become mortal. Satan would become His master. . . . He [Jesus] had been lifted up as a serpent. Serpent is Satan. Jesus knew He was going to be lifted up, united with the Adversary." (What Happened from the Cross to the Throne [Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1969], 20, 33, 44-45.)
43. Benny Hinn: "I'm going to be led by the Holy Ghost today Is that all right with you?...God came from heaven, became a man. made man into little gods, went back to heaven as a man. He faces the Father as a man. I face devils as the son of God. Do you see what I'm talking about'! You say, 'Benny, am I a little God?' You're a son of God, aren't you? You're a child of God, aren't you? You're a daughter of God, aren't you? What else are you? Quit your nonsense! What else are you? If you say, 'I am' you're saying I'm a part of Him, right? Is He God? Are you His offspring? Are you His children? You can't be human! You can't! You can't! God didn't give birth to flesh. He gave birth to a new creation. And the new creation is not flesh and blood and bone, for no flesh and blood would inherit heaven. Did you hear what I said? Some of you didn't really hear what I said. You said, 'Well, that's heresy. No, that's your crazy brain saying that." ("Our Position in Christ #2--The Word Made Flesh" [Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Center, 1991], audiotape #A031190-2, side 2.)
44. Benny Hinn: "When you were born again the Word was made flesh in you. And you became flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Don't tell me you have Jesus. You are everything He was and everything He is and ever He shall be. . . . It [the new man] says, 'I am as He is.' That's what it says. As He is, so are we in this world. Jesus said, 'Go in my name, go in my stead.' Don't say, 'I have.' Say, 'I am, I am, I am, I am, I am.' That's why you never ever, ever, ever ought to say. 'I'm sick.' How can you be sick if you're the new creation? Say, 'I'm healed!' Don't say, 'I'm a sinner.' The new creature is no sinner. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ." (Ibid.)
45. Frederick K.C. Price: "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. . . . Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound. And they threw a net over Jesus and they dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." (Ever Increasing Faith Messenger [June 1980], 7; quoted in D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988], 120.)
46. Charles Capps: "The sinless son of God became as a serpent that He might swallow up all evil....If you will behold what happened when the sin offering was made and the fact that Jesus became a serpent upon the pole, it will change your life. . . . Jesus died spiritually, not for any of His own sin! He became the serpent on the pole, the snake on the ground, in the Old Testament type." (Authority in Three Worlds, 177, 166-67.)
47. Paul E. Billheimer: "The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was 'the essence of sin' he was at Satan's mercy in that place of torment. . . .While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was 'in carnival.' " (Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN [Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988(orig. 1975)]. 84.)
48. Charles Capps: " If there's any part of hell Jesus did not suffer, you'll have to suffer it. But, thank God, Jesus suffered it all, for you! In the place of the wicked dead, all the demons of hell and Satan rejoiced over the prize. The corridors of hell were filled with joy. 'We've done it! We've captured the Son of God! We'll no longer be in the pit of the damned! The earth and all that is therein is ours! Forever it will be ours!' Rejoicing in hell had never been so great as it was that day. But it was short-lived." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
49. Kenneth Copeland: "Satan didn't realize He [Jesus] is in there [hell] illegally. . . . This man had not sinned. This man has not fallen out of the covenant of God, and He had the promise of God for deliverance. And Satan fell into the trap. He took Him into hell illegally. He carried Him in there [when] He did not sin." ("What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990], audiotape #02-0017, side 2.)
50. Charles Capps: "When Jesus was in the pit of hell. in that terrible torment, no doubt the Devil and his emissaries gathered around to see the annihilation of God's Son. But in the corridors of hell, there came a great voice from heaven: 'Turn Him Loose! He's there illegally!' And all of hell became paralyzed." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
51. Kenneth Copeland: "He [Jesus] is suffering all that there is to suffer. There is no suffering left apart from Him. His emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing [hell]. And the Devil thinks he's got Him destroyed." ("Believer's Voice of Victory" program [21 April 1991]. This message was originally delivered at the Full Gospel Motorcycle Rally Association 1990 Rally at Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas.)
52. Kenneth Copeland: "That Word of the living God went down into that pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life. He began to look like something the devil had never seen before." ("The Price of it All," Believer's Voice of Victory 19, 9 [September 1991]:4.)
53. Kenneth Copeland: "He [Jesus] was literally being reborn before the devil's very eyes. He began to flex His spiritual muscles. . . .Jesus was born again--the firstborn from the dead the Word calls Him--and He whipped the devil in his own backyard. He took everything he had away from him. He took his keys and his authority away from him." (Ibid., 4-6.)
54. Kenneth E. Hagin: "Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." ("The Incarnation," The Word of Faith 13, 12 [December 1980]:14; cf. E.W. Kenyon, The Father and His Family, 100.)
55. Frederick K.C. Price: "The whole point is I'm trying to get you to see--to get you out of this malaise of thinking that Jesus and the disciples were poor and then relating that to you- thinking that you, as a child of God, have to follow Jesus. The Bible says that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. That's the reason why I drive a Rolls Royce. I'm following Jesus' steps." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN (9 December 1990].)
56. Benny Hinn: "When you say, 'I am a Christian, you are saying, 'I am mashiach' in the Hebrew. I am a little messiah walking on earth, in other words That is a shocking revelation.... May I say it like this? You are a little god on earth running around." ("Praise-a-Thon" program on TBN [6 November 1990].)
57. Frederick K.C. Price: "When 1 first got saved they didn't tell me 1 could do anything. What they told me to do was that whenever I prayed I should always say, 'The will of the Lord be done.' Now, doesn't that sound humble? It does. Sounds like humility, it's really stupidity. 1 mean, you know, really, we insult God. 1 mean, we really do insult our Heavenly Father. We do; we really insult Him without even realizing it. If you have to say, 'If it be thy will' or 'Thy will be done'--if you have to say that, then you're calling God a fool because He's the One that told us to ask. . . . If God's gonna give me what He wants me to have, then it doesn't matter what 1 ask. I'm only gonna get what God wants me to have. So that's an insult to God's intelligence." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [16 November 1990].)
58. Kenneth Copeland: "As a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus. Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent because it is His Word." (Our Covenant with God [Fort Worth, TX: KCP Publications, 1987], 32.)
59. Jerry Savelle: See chapter 5, 68.
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