WORD OF FAITH - KENNETH COPELAND, KENNETH HAGIN, MARK 11:12-23 and FALSE PROPHECIES

I see you are interested in Kenneth Copelands Ministry. I was just wondering how many people have gotten saved under your personal ministry?

How many millions have you given to Prison ministry. Do you personally know Bro. Copeland, or did you know Kenneth hagin? I know them oth and your articles about them are lies. Is'nt the devil giving Christians enough trouble without you joining him? There are so many positive things to tell people without calling a Brother a "False Prophet". Some people think their mission in th world is to criticize others, and make them look bad. That gift my friend is not on eo the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. I know this will go over your little head, but I had to say something. Give me a break.
Victorious in Him,
RLM—

On Doctrine Reply

Welcome to On Doctrine, R—.
Thank you for your visit and message on the Contact page.

My comments regarding Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin are based on what they have said in comparison with the Scripture. If what Kenneth Copeland says is true, it must be found in the Scripture, but in relation to the following claims by Kenneth Copeland, the Scripture denies what he says:

That God created Adam and Eve, not as a likeness of Himself, but as literal gods over this earth who were identical reproductions of God Himself.
That he, Kenneth Copeland, is a "little god" on the same level as Adam and Eve, who he defines as the same as the Creator-God of the Bible.
That he and every other Christian have the same creative ability as did God, who created everything that is.
That he, Kenneth Copeland, as a "born-again man" could have accomplished the redemption of humanity by his death on the cross, the same as Jesus Christ.
That there are "laws" superior to God and which God must follow; one of those laws being the law of faith.
That God created the universe by faith.
That Satan has greater authority than God over this earth.
That God is "the greatest failure in the Bible."
That God had to develop a plan to recover the earth based on a deception (a lie), so that Satan would not find out. (So, God is a liar and a deceiver in Kenneth Copeland's theology.)
That Jesus Christ never claimed to be God. (He says that Jesus Christ gave him that information during a personal encounter and conversation.)
That Jesus died spiritually while in hell. (So, The resurrection was not really a resurrection, but a recreation of Jesus Christ from the mind of God. Since the spirit of Jesus Christ died (went out of existence) while He was in hell, then God could only recreate and not resurrect that which did not any longer exist.)

Kenneth Copeland does not need me to make him look bad, because his own words do the job very well. How can I say anything positive in relation to Kenneth Copeland's theology, when it is heretical to the very core? There is virtually no biblical doctrine that has not been changed by Kenneth Copeland into something other than what the Bible teaches.

Kenneth Copeland worships a god who is himself and prays to himself as well:

"'Pray to yourself, because I'm in your self and you're in My self. We are one Spirit,' saith the Lord,"
Kenneth Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory, February, 1987, p. 9.
(Quoting Jesus Christ in a revelation he claimed to have received.)

See the real words of Jesus Christ:

"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you,"
Matthew 6:6 (NAS).

He teaches a Jesus Christ who was not the eternally existing Son of God, but came into existence only at the incarnation, cf. John 1:1.

He teaches that he is the same as, and is qualified to have accomplished the atonement in place of Jesus Christ, because he erroneously teaches that Jesus Christ was a "born-again" man, but the Scripture says that Jesus Christ was "Emmanuel", "God with us". in Matthew 1:23. Jesus Christ had no requirement to be born-again, since he had no sin. Jesus Christ was the sinless God of the universe, so, that is why He was qualified as the Redeemer. So, Kenneth Copeland corrupts that reality by claiming that he and all believers are "little gods", just like Adam and Eve, so he or any other "born-again man" could have accomplished the incarnation, and in the process introduces polytheism into the Christian message, and denies the direct words of God that there are no other gods, Isaiah 44:8; 46:9.

He denies that Jesus Christ claimed to be God and, therefore, denies that Jesus Christ is God incarnate by which he denies the Scripture, Isaiah 9:6, John 1:1. It was the Lord God Himself who gave Jesus His name and declared the reality of who He was, "Emmanuel - God with us," Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23.

He teaches a God who is crippled by laws and forces that are beyond His control, faith being greater than His power, words of human beings controlling His actions and Satan having greater control over the earth than He, cf. Job 42:11. So, again, Kenneth Copeland denies the Scriptures that state there are no other Gods, Isaiah 44:8; 45:1-25; 46:9-11; Matthew 4:10.

He claims God used faith to create the universe, but can find no verse in the entire Bible to support his claim. God is the source of faith and the objects of faith; He is not subject to faith. God gives laws; He is not subject to laws because he is the law. There is nothing greater or more powerful than God, whether it be any being or any force or any law, cf. Jeremiah 10:12-16; 51:15-16; Ephesians 1:19-23; Hebrews 1:3; 2:14.

He teaches [that] Satan has more control over this earth than God, again, a teaching that is denied by the Scripture, cf. Zechariah 6:5; Psalm 24:1; Psalm 47:1-9; 115:3; 35:6; Daniel 4:35.

He teaches that Jesus Christ died spiritually in hell, but the Scripture says that He died on the cross by which the atonement was accomplished, cf. John 19:30. The Scripture says that Jesus Christ committed His Spirit into the hands of God, not the hands of Satan, Luke 23:46. He preached to the spirits in prison, 1 Peter 3:19-20. There is no verse in the entire Bible that says Jesus Christ died spiritually in hell or that He was tortured by Satan or any demon in hell.

I have always believed that the definition of a false prophet was a person who prophesies falsely. Is that not correct? Or do you have some other definition? So, when Kenneth Copeland prophesies falsely, that means he is a true prophet or a false prophet?

"And there are going to be multiplied millions upon millions, there's going to be close to a billion people that have been trapped in that religion, that over the next few months are gonna to come into the kingdom of God. That's gonna happen, you watch and see what I'm telling you. Because it's been... I'm telling you, Satan's fat is in the fire, he pushed it over the line, and God has moved, and for over a hundred years the United States has been an instrument of judgment in the hand of God. That's one of the reasons we're blessed, amen? I'd like to get in there and walk around a while, but I don't have the time, but I can tell you this, that thing has come to an end, it's over. I'm talking about Islam and every, all that that stands for. That's over with. Now, God is making His move."
Kenneth Copeland, Word of Life Christian Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Dedication Celebration Service, Evening, December 2, 2001.

It has now been over [37] months, not just a "few". So, where does that leave Kenneth Copeland as a prophet? How many false prophesies does it require for a person to be a false prophet?

In relation to Kenneth Hagin, he claimed that he received his teaching, not from any man, but from God. yet, he plagiarized the direct words of E.W. Kenyon virtually word-for-word. So, he was teaching what he claimed were the revelatory words of God given directly to him, when they were the words of E.W. Kenyon. He claimed that God said what He did not, and, in the process, made God to be a liar.

Did Kenneth Hagin ever apologize to God for placing Him in the position of a liar and did he admit to his plagiarism and apologize to his followers for claiming that god said to him what He did not?

I can only refer your to Deuteronomy 18:20-22. The Scripture is the judge.

Sincerely,

Gary A. Hand
On Doctrine webmaster
contact@ondoctrine.com
www.ondoctrine.com

The Word of Faith Challenge

Wednesday, October 13

Dear On? Doctrine
Can you explain to me what JESUS was talking about in his object lesson found in Mark 11:12-23 when He spoke to the fig tree and then told the disciples that "WHOSOEVER (Not just Him, or the disciples) shall say, and not doubt in his heart, but shall believe the things which he saith shall come to pass he shall h ave whtsover he saith". Please help me with this scripture I can't seem to figure out what Jesus was taking about according to your interpretation of the Bible. What about the book of Revelatio? These prophecies were given 2000 years ago and have not yet come to pass. Could this mean the Apostle John is a false prophet? I need to know.
RLM—

On Doctrine Reply

Welcome back to On Doctrine, R—.
Thank you for your reply and questions.

John was appointed as an apostle and commissioned directly by Jesus Christ, as were all of the other disciples. If it is assumed that he is a false prophet, then it must also be assumed that Jesus Christ was ignorant of the fact, either due to negligence or an inability to know the future. I don't think we wish to adopt that particular explanation.

Secondly, the context of the prophecies given must be considered. Prophecies may be given that come to pass immediately, within a lifetime or beyond a lifetime. It is not possible to judge the validity of a prophecy which is said to occur outside the length of a person's lifetime, based on the fact that it has not come to pass. That will fall to the judgment of another generation. No person can be said to be a false prophet simply because they have stated a future prophecy, which has not come to pass, when the prophecy is set within a time frame future to the present time. What can be done is judge the revelation as to propriety in relation to already given Scripture and in relation to the teachings of the person claiming to be a prophet, as they are found to conform to or deviate from existing Scriptural doctrine. The person who teaches false doctrine is also a false prophet, because false doctrine reveals a false God, and those who teach a false God are false prophets, even if their prophecies come true, according to Deuteronomy 13:1-3.

The fact that the majority of the book of Revelation is concerned with future events which have not yet occurred, does not invalidate the prophet, because the prophecies are future within the time frame set by the prophecies. If those prophecies do not come true at the time stated, then the apostle John would be considered a false prophet. However, unless the events noting the time frame are in the present or should have already occurred, no claim can be made that the apostle John is a false prophet. Jesus Christ prophesied that He would come again and that there would be a future Millennial Kingdom and a judgment of the wicked, none of which have come to pass. So, is Jesus Christ a false prophet? I don't think we would wish to adopt that particular explanation either.

My comments regarding current prophets and their unfulfilled prophecies are rooted in the fact that they have stated a specific time frame in which the prophecies are said to come to pass, and since the time frame specified by them has already concluded, and the prophecies have not come true, the prophecies have failed. This is the specific situation encountered by both Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn.

As I noted before, Kenneth Copeland prophesied on December 2, 2001, that the Islamic religion was over and that "close to a billion people that have been trapped in that religion, that over the next few months are gonna to come into the kingdom of God." It has now been almost 37 months (considerably more than a few) [Update: now over 58 months and still counting] and close to a billion Muslims have never seen the kingdom of God. Far from being over, there are more Muslims now than when Kenneth Copeland gave his prophecy. There is a greater affinity for Islamic belief among non-Muslim people than there was before his prophecy. [Update: I just recently read that there are more attendees at Muslim worship services than Christian services.] The reality is, Kenneth Copeland's prophecy failed within the time frame that he set himself.

The same situation is true with Benny Hinn.
See: On Doctrine - Benny Hinn prophecies
I listed 4 prophecies of Benny Hinn:
(1) Jesus Christ would appear on the platform with Benny Hinn

"She (Ruth Heflin) just sent me a word through my wife and said the Lord spoke to her audibly and said that He is going to appear physically in one of our crusades in the next few months."
March 29, 2000 - TBN

"Dear God my hair is standing up! It may very well happen in Nashville! She said, 'thousands will see the Lord, on the platform!..."
April 20, 2000 - TBN

"Those things have happened in the past, I know. In a Thailagua meeting one time in Africa, the Lord appeared to a, to the whole crowd! It is about to begin happening. I know it too! Expect it to happen also, in your own home!"
May 2, 2000 - TBN

The prophecy did not come to pass "in the next few months," because it has been over 68 months since the last mention of the prophecy. Benny Hinn could have saved himself the grief by simply staying with the statement that Ruth Heflin gave the prophecy, so when the prophecy did not happen, he could have blamed her. But he adopted the prophecy himself and stated, "It is about to begin happening. I know it too!" Then, he went even farther than Ruth Heflin when he said, "Expect it to happen also, in your own home!"

(2) God will destroy the homosexual community in America.

"The Lord also tells me to tell you, in mid 90's, about '94 or '95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America. But He will not destroy it with what many minds have thought Him to be. He will destroy it with fire."
December 31, 1989

It is now over 9 1/2 years since the last year for the prophecy to be fulfilled. It never happened.

(3) An earthquake on the East cost of the United States.

"The Spirit of God tells me, an earthquake will hit the East Coast of America and destroy much in the 90's. Not one place will be safe from earthquakes in the 90's. These who have known earthquakes will know it. People I feel the Spirit all over me."
December 31, 1989

It has now been over 4 1/2 years since the end of the 90's and the time frame for the fulfillment of the prophecy. It never happened.

(4) Fidel Castro will die in the 90's.

"The Spirit tells me, Fidel Castro will die in the 90's. Oh my. Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed."
December 31, 1989

Fidel Castro just recently tripped and fell on a platform, injuring his knee and his arm, but he is still alive almost five years after Benny Hinn's prophecy stated that he should be dead. The time frame for the fulfillment of the prophecy has passed, so, the prophecy failed, Benny Hinn gave a false prophecy and is a false prophet.

Both Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn placed their prophecies within specific time frames and those prophecies have failed within those specific parameters. There is no margin of error for a true prophet. They must be accurate 100% of the time. Failure regarding even one small prophecy makes a false prophet.

The commentary by Jesus Christ about the fig tree in response to Peter's observation is prefaced by the statement, "Have faith in God." That includes faith in everything that He is, does, can do and has planned for every believer. God has a will, it is exercised according to His plan and it cannot be frustrated, Job 42:2, Psalm 62:11.

The difficulty in regards to Mark 11, cf. Matthew 21:21, is that many people presume that it is their will and authority that determine what will be granted and not the will of God. In other words, human beings determine what they will or will not have, based solely on their own desire for fulfillment and they presume that God will grant their requests based on their own desire. The problem with that approach, is that it presumes that ANY desire or want will be accomplished. So, if a person desires that their enemies be killed and the person says, "My enemies be dead," without doubting that the request will come true, then it will come true. If that assumption is made, then a person can receive the fulfillment of any deviant desire that can be conceived, after all, the verse says, "he will have whatever he says." I don't think we wish to go down that road very far, because God is not in the business of granting requests that are outside the framework of His will and He certainly is not in the business or granting deviant or sinful requests. So, not every desire can or will be granted, no matter how much faith is expressed or how much doubt is removed. When it is presumed that God acts as a genie and simply grants every particular wish or desire without consideration for His own will as the Creator and Sustainer of everything that is, then a backward assumption is made. This is nowhere more evident than what is found in the words of Kenneth Hagin:

"Because we didn't understand what Jesus said, and because we've been religiously brainwashed instead of New Testament-taught, we watered down the promises of God and tacked on something that Jesus didn't say, and added on something else to it: "Well, He will all right if it's His will, but it might not be His will, " people have said. And yet, you don't find that kind of talk in the New Testament,"
Kenneth Hagin, How Jesus Obtained His Name, Tulsa: Rhema, cassette tape #44H01.

"It is unscriptural to pray, 'If it is the will of God.' When you put an 'if in your prayer, you are praying in doubt,"
Kenneth Hagin, Exceedingly Growing Faith, Tulsa: Faith Library, 1983, p. 10.

A person might not "find that kind of talk in the New Testament" if they don't bother to read the New Testament, but as quoted below, 1 John 5:14-15 says just the opposite of what Kenneth Hagin claimed. Kenneth Hagin claimed that the Scripture does not say exactly what it does say. Because his followers never bothered to read the Bible and compare what he falsely stated against the Scripture, no one stood up and said, "You're a false teacher Mr. Hagin. The Bible does say that."
How amazing.

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him,"
1 John 5:14-15.

One of the doctrinal teachings in Word of Faith theology, regarding the exercise of faith, is to claim that to accept or state that the will of God must be accepted is to doubt the outcome of a specific request. Rather than depending on the character and integrity of God and accepting what the will of God might be, it is claimed that the will of the person is the determining factor in the equation, so, human beings are considered to have greater knowledge of what should be accomplished than God.

See:
The words of Jesus Christ
Matthew 6: 10, Matthew 7-21, Matthew 12:50, Matthew 18:14, Matthew 26:39, 42, 44, Mark 3:35, Mark 14-36, 39, Luke 22:42, John 4:34, John 5:30, John 6:38-40.

The words of Luke:
Acts 22:14.

The words of the apostle John
John 1:13, 1 John 2:17

The words of the apostle Peter
1 Peter 2:15, 1 Peter 3:17, 1 Peter 4:2, 19

The words of the apostle Paul
Acts 18:21; Romans 1:10; Romans 12:2; Romans 15:32; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 4:19; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 8:5; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:1, 5, 9, 11; Ephesians 5-17; Ephesians 6:6; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:1, 9; Colossians 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 2 Timothy 1:1.

The words of Ananias
Acts 22:14

The writer of Hebrews
Hebrews 10:36

Another difficulty, is the fact that what is said to be found in Mark 11 does not occur in reality. I do not know of any Christian at any time in history, including the apostles, who ever moved a mountain into the ocean or received everything for which they asked. I am sure I have not met every Christian who ever lived, but had those things been accomplished on a consistent basis throughout the history of the church, the secular world would have seen that without fail, and how could it be missed by the church?

Scripture is the interpreter of itself, and the verses dealing with the same subject must be taken into account.

"We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him,"
John 9:31.

". . . and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God,"
Romans 8:27.

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord will, we will live and also do this or that.'
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance,- all such boasting is evil,"
James 4:3, 13-16.

Sincerely,

Gary A. Hand
On Doctrine webmaster
contact@ondoctrine. corn
www.ondoctrine.com

RESOURCES
See: Kenneth Copeland
See: Kenneth Copeland - What Did He Say?

END OF "CONVERSATIONS ON WORD OF FAITH"
Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Mark 11:12-23 and False Prophecies