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Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland, in my opinion, is the worst of the Word of Faith teachers.
It should only take a few quotes to show just how blasphemous and heretical
this man is. Let's begin with the beginning. Here is Copeland's account
of the creation narrative:
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
[Adam] was not a little like God, He was not almost like God, He was not,
um, 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.(1)
Of course, the Bible militates against this teaching. Adam was not a
reproduction or duplicate of God. He was not God manifested in the flesh;
Jesus was unique in this respect (John 1:14).
Beyond that, the creation (Adam) was undeniably subordinate to the creator
(God). In no way can this be mistaken from the text. This teaching is
nothing less than rank heresy. Of course, if Copeland can get his
followers to believe this teaching, then he can use it to support other
teachings such as, "You don't have a god in you, you are one."(2)
This again is heresy.
This may be bad enough, but Copeland doesn't stop there. Teachings like
those already cited allow him to preach a different Christ:
What does God have to pay the price for this thing? He has to have a man
that is like that first one. It's got to be a man. He's got to be all man.
He cannot be a God and come storming in here with attributes and
dignities that are not common to man. He can't do that. It's not
legal.(3)
First, if this quote is compared to Copeland's quote regarding creation, he
is found to contradict himself. In one he says that Adam is God manifested
in the flesh, "just the same as Jesus." In the next, Jesus "cannot be a
God," even though He has to be "like that first one." It would seem that
at the very least, Copeland is confused to so blatantly contradict himself.
But this quote also shows that Copeland believes in a different Jesus.
Here Copeland says, "He cannot be a god"; however, scripture states the
contrary: "For in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form." -
Colossians 2:9. Many other scriptures bear this out as well
(i.e. - John 1:1, 14; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 2:9).
It would be sufficiently bad if Copeland were to stop here. Unfortunately,
his teachings get worse. Next, in an alleged conversation with God,
Copeland discovers that Jesus became a demonic being on the cross:
The righteousness of God was made to be sin. He accepted the sin nature of
Satan in His own spirit. And at the moment that He did so, He cried, "My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" You don't know what happened at
the cross. Why do you think Moses, upon the instruction of God, raised a
serpent up on that pole instead of a lamb? That used to bug me. I said,
"why in the world would you want to put a snake up there - the sign of
Satan? Why didn't you put a lamb up on that pole?" And the Lord said,
"Because it was the sign of Satan that was hanging on the cross." He
said, "I accepted in my own spirit, spiritual death, and the light was
turned off."(4)
Based on this teaching, God ceased to exist as God. If the light was
turned off, who turned it back on? Besides that, can any evidence be found
in the Bible to prove that Jesus became a satanic being? The reference
upon which this is obviously based, John 3:14
, does not teach that Jesus became a demon. It teaches that those
who look to the lifted up Christ would be saved from their sin, because this is an act of faith in God; just
as the Israelites who looked to the snake upon the pole were saved from the
bites of the venomous serpents, because looking upon that snake was an act
of faith in God (Numbers 21:5-9). So the question becomes, did God really
say this to Copeland? The answer is a resounding "NO!" Again, as with
Hinn, either an evil spirit deceived Copeland (remember that he claims the
Lord said this to him, as if it were a literal conversation), or he is lying.
Why stop there when you can be equal with Jesus. Follow along as Copeland
puts himself on the same level as Jesus, while at the same time demoting
Jesus to simply a reborn man:
The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, "Son, realize this. Now follow
me in this and don't let your tradition trip you up." He said, "Think this
way: a twice-born man whipped Satan in his own domain." And I threw my
Bible down, like that, and I said, "What?" He said, "A born-again man
defeated Satan, the firstborn of many brethren defeated him." He said,
"You are the very image and the very copy of that one." I said, "Goodness,
gracious sakes alive!" And I began to see what had gone on in there. And
I said, "Well now you don't mean, you couldn't dare mean that I could have
done that same thing?" He said, "Oh yeah. If you'd had the same knowledge
of the Word of God that He did, you could've done the same thing, 'cause
you're a reborn man too."(5)
Never mind that Jesus was God Himself. Never mind that Jesus was NOT a
reborn man, nor did He need to be reborn (since, unlike fallen humanity, He
never had a sin nature). Could something this heretical come from God? Of
course not! How could anyone believe that the Holy Spirit told Kenneth
Copeland that he (Copeland) could have saved fallen humanity?
Blasphemy!
There is much more evidence that exposes Copeland for what he is
(especially his teachings on giving and wealth that would subject him to
scrutiny under such scriptures as
1 Timothy 6:3-5 and 2 Peter2:3-5), but the
evidence already presented should be sufficient to convince anyone that
Copeland is a false teacher.
Bibliography
- Kenneth Copeland, "Following the Faith of Abraham I" (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), audiotape #01-3001, side1.
- Kenneth Copeland, "The Force of Love" (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987), audiotape #02-0028, side 1.
- Kenneth Copeland, "The Incarnation" (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985), audiotape 01-0402, side 1, emphasis in original.
- Kenneth Copeland, "What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #02-0017, side 2.
- Kenneth Copeland, "Substitution and Identification" (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #00-0202, side 2.
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