While I was in Costa Rica, Missionary Gene Ray Ward showed me a book, Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff. Although it was published in 1997, I was still able to purchase a copy online. This book deals with the so called "Faith" ministers, those preachers that say if you have enough faith then you won't be sick and you will get rich. Such people as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Frederick K.C. Price, Robert Tilton, John Avanzini, Marilyn Hickey, David Cho, Charles Capps, Jerry Savelle, Morris Cerullo and Paul Crouch.
Much of what these people preach is true. However, some of what they preach is downright weird. I thought I would give you some quotes from this well documented book.
Kenneth Copeland:
> "[God is] not some creature that stands 28 feet tall, and He's got hands, you know, as big as basketballs. That's not the kind of creature He is. . . . A being that is very uncanny the way He's very much like you and me. A being that stands somewhere around 6'-2", 6'-3", that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred pounds, little better, [and] has a [hand] span of nine inches across."
> "He [Jesus] is suffering all 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."
> "The Word of the living God went down into the pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly his twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and came back to life. He began to look like something the devil had never seen before."
> "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 back yard."
> "Heaven has a north and a south and an east and a west. Consequently, it must be a planet."
> "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 am 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."
> "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."
> "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."
Benny Hinn:
> "Adam was a super-being when God created him. I don't know whether you 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. I'll prove it further. Adam not only flew, he flew to space He was--with one thought he would be on the moon."
> Had the Holy Spirit not been with Jesus, He would have sinned. That's right, it was the Holy Spirit that was the power that kept Him pure. He was not only sent from heaven, but He was called the Son of Man--and as such He was capable of sinning. . . . Without the Holy Ghost, Jesus would never have made it. . . .Can you imagine Christ headed for the grave, knowing He would remain there forever, if the Holy Ghost would change His mind about raising Him from the dead."
> "Never, ever, ever, go to the Lord and say, 'If it be thy will . . . 'Don't allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth. When you pray, 'If it be your will, Lord,' faith will be destroyed. Doubt will billow up and flood your being. Be on guard against words like this which will rob you of your faith and drag you down in despair."
> "Man, I feel revelation knowledge already coming on me here. . . .See, God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the Holy Ghost is a person. But each one of them is a triune being by Himself--there's nine of them."
> "He promises to heal all--every one, any, any whatsoever, everything--all our diseases! That means not even a headache, sinus problem, not even a toothache--nothing! No sickness should come your way."
> "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."
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."
> "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."
> "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us. . . .How did God bless Abraham? With cattle, gold, manservants, maidservants, camels, and asses. Abraham was blessed materially."
> "When you have developed your faith to such an extent that you can stand on the promises of God, then you won't need medicine. That's the reason I don't take medicine."
> "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."
Robert Tilton:
> "If you have a problem, any kind of need, housing, transportation, situation in a marriage, you can release the creative--see, this all works by faith--the creative force of God into existence."
> "Being poor is a sin."
> "Those prayer request forms have ink on them and all kinds of chemicals. I laid on top of those prayer requests so much that the chemicals actually got into my bloodstream and began to swell my capillaries. . . . It got into my immune system and I had two small strokes in my brain that brought about some numbness in my body."
John Avanzini:
> "Jesus had a nice house, a big house--big enough to have company stay the night with Him at the house."
> "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."
> "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 don'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."
> "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. I 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."
I've run out of space, but I think you get the idea.
Much of what these people preach is true. However, some of what they preach is downright weird. I thought I would give you some quotes from this well documented book.
Kenneth Copeland:
> "[God is] not some creature that stands 28 feet tall, and He's got hands, you know, as big as basketballs. That's not the kind of creature He is. . . . A being that is very uncanny the way He's very much like you and me. A being that stands somewhere around 6'-2", 6'-3", that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred pounds, little better, [and] has a [hand] span of nine inches across."
> "He [Jesus] is suffering all 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."
> "The Word of the living God went down into the pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly his twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and came back to life. He began to look like something the devil had never seen before."
> "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 back yard."
> "Heaven has a north and a south and an east and a west. Consequently, it must be a planet."
> "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 am 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."
> "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."
> "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."
Benny Hinn:
> "Adam was a super-being when God created him. I don't know whether you 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. I'll prove it further. Adam not only flew, he flew to space He was--with one thought he would be on the moon."
> Had the Holy Spirit not been with Jesus, He would have sinned. That's right, it was the Holy Spirit that was the power that kept Him pure. He was not only sent from heaven, but He was called the Son of Man--and as such He was capable of sinning. . . . Without the Holy Ghost, Jesus would never have made it. . . .Can you imagine Christ headed for the grave, knowing He would remain there forever, if the Holy Ghost would change His mind about raising Him from the dead."
> "Never, ever, ever, go to the Lord and say, 'If it be thy will . . . 'Don't allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth. When you pray, 'If it be your will, Lord,' faith will be destroyed. Doubt will billow up and flood your being. Be on guard against words like this which will rob you of your faith and drag you down in despair."
> "Man, I feel revelation knowledge already coming on me here. . . .See, God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the Holy Ghost is a person. But each one of them is a triune being by Himself--there's nine of them."
> "He promises to heal all--every one, any, any whatsoever, everything--all our diseases! That means not even a headache, sinus problem, not even a toothache--nothing! No sickness should come your way."
> "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."
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."
> "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."
> "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us. . . .How did God bless Abraham? With cattle, gold, manservants, maidservants, camels, and asses. Abraham was blessed materially."
> "When you have developed your faith to such an extent that you can stand on the promises of God, then you won't need medicine. That's the reason I don't take medicine."
> "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."
Robert Tilton:
> "If you have a problem, any kind of need, housing, transportation, situation in a marriage, you can release the creative--see, this all works by faith--the creative force of God into existence."
> "Being poor is a sin."
> "Those prayer request forms have ink on them and all kinds of chemicals. I laid on top of those prayer requests so much that the chemicals actually got into my bloodstream and began to swell my capillaries. . . . It got into my immune system and I had two small strokes in my brain that brought about some numbness in my body."
John Avanzini:
> "Jesus had a nice house, a big house--big enough to have company stay the night with Him at the house."
> "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."
> "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 don'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."
> "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. I 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."
I've run out of space, but I think you get the idea.
"FAITH" MINISTERS
by Raymond McAlister
March 2008
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