Is Grassley Picking on Pentecostals?
The
Dallas News reports:
North Texas' Copeland sees bias in televangelist inquiry
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 26, 2008
Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post
North Texas preacher Kenneth Copeland is leading a counterattack against the U.S. senator who is investigating alleged lavish spending by six high-profile televangelists. Some of Mr. Copeland's backers question whether Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is biased against the Pentecostal televangelists because of his Baptist faith.
Mr. Copeland, a subject of the investigation, recently launched a Web site called believersstandunited.com.
He said the senator's investigation is "aimed at publicly questioning the religious beliefs of the targeted churches, their ministers, and their members while ignoring televangelists of other denominations."
Is Grassley really targeting Pentecostals? Or is it more likely that Word of Faith teachers tend to come from that background? I don't see a single person named in Grassley's investigation that
isn't a Word Faith teacher, and certainly not all Pentecostals are Word Faith. I think this is simply an attempt to get all Pentecostals behind him, Word Faith or not.
Labels: Kenneth Copeland
More Christian Myths
I was watching Kenneth Copeland the other day and learned some fascinating information I didn't know before. Did you know that Jesus had to have faith that God would get Him out of Hell once He had been there paying for our sins long enough? Did you know that Copeland had a heavenly account in heaven in which were his future cars, airplanes and money? Did you know that Copeland is vowing to ride God's chariot across the universe? Watch for yourself
HERE! Where does he get this stuff?!
Labels: Kenneth Copeland
Your Morning Chuckle
The late Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, "drunk in the spirit" or spirits?Labels: Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin
Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Was Born Again
Labels: Kenneth Copeland
Dueling Tongues
Just to get your long weekend off to a roaring start, here's an old clip of Rodney Howard-Browne and Kenneth Copeland engaged in a little friendly dueling tongues, compete with joke telling. If you can understand the tongues, let us know what the joke was!!
Labels: Kenneth Copeland, Rodney Howard-Browne
Practicing What They Preach?
ABC News' 20/20 had a story on what happens to all that money donated to various "Christian" ministries. The focus was on the well-known usually-heretical Word of Faith teachers we're all familiar with who - as a matter of fact - DO practice what they preach - wealth.
Excerpt:
Anyone watching televangelists on television will hear plenty of pitches for money. Jan and Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting say they need big bucks to keep their network on the air and to help the poor around the world.
Benny Hinn, of Benny Hinn Ministries, has made heartfelt pleas to help the people of Calcutta, while Rod Parsley of Breakthrough Ministries has asked for help to spread the gospel to the people of Nepal.
Christian ministries and charities promise to do all kinds of good things with your money, and that makes donors feel great about sending in their checks. The problem is, they can't always find out exactly how their donation is being spent.
...The popular Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries lives in a large mansion in Texas. He recently asked his audience to help him spread the gospel by giving him $20 million to buy a new jet. Copeland promised that the plane "will never, ever be used as long as it is in our care, for anything other than what is becoming to you, Lord Jesus."
Labels: Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Word Faith
How To Be Saved
I was looking at Kenneth Copeland's idea of
Salvation. He writes:
Salvation is a gift that is made available to those who repent, believe and confess that Jesus is Lord and that He died and rose from the dead to save mankind (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9-10). This gift cannot be earned through good deeds or by simply being "good" (Ephesians 2:8; 1 Timothy 1:9). It is a matter of faith (acting out on what you believe according to God's Word concerning salvation). If you have come here looking for a change in your life, if you have come seeking a peace that is found only through a personal relationship with a loving God, then you are at the right place. God is ready and willing to help you—right now, and right where you are.
Pray this prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus. Your Word says, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). I am calling on You. I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord over my life according to Romans 10:9-10. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." I do that now. I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead.
If you have prayed this prayer, welcome to the family of God.
But what is missing from this page for those just visiting his site for the first time?
- Repent - repent from what? What does that mean?
- Save mankind - from what? Why do I need saving? I'm doing just fine.
- Jesus - who is he? How can some man save me? Copeland once said that Jesus told him that under the right circumstances Copeland himself could have saved mankind, so what makes Jesus so special?
- Acting out - does that mean I have to do something? I'd heard Jesus did it all.
Unfortunately, salvation statements like this are all too common in many churches, not just Word of Faith churches. The Gospel does no one any good if they haven't heard the Law. It does no good if they don't know what Jesus is saving them from. And the Gospel does no good if people think they must
do something besides trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Labels: Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth's Servant
Well, I'm confused!! The Gospel of Paula tells me that I had to observe the Day of Atonement - October 2, 2006 - the most important day of the year, according to Paula - and I'd receive all sorts of blessings - health, wealth, you name it!
But just today I was reading the Gospel of Kenneth Copeland and it tells me that I have a servant that God gave me to do my bidding and that I could have whatever I wanted. That means I didn't
have to observe that "Day of Atonement"! The
Gospel of Kenneth Copeland says,
Imagine for a moment that somebody provided a servant for you. A rich friend just decided to bless you by hiring someone to help you—around the house, at the office, wherever you need assistance.
Once you thanked your friend for his kindness, what would you do?You’d put that servant to work, that’s what. You’d give him a list of all the things you’ve dreamed of getting done but haven’t had time to do yourself. Housecleaning. Gardening. Detailing the car. The list would go on and on… You certainly wouldn’t leave the servant sitting on the couch all day with nothing to do.
...Nobody in their right mind would do that. Yet spiritually speaking, we as believers do it all the time. We neglect the spiritual assistance we’ve been given. We leave the servant called faith, which God has so graciously provided for us, sitting around idly with nothing to do.
...Exactly what job is faith designed to do? It is designed to transfer material from the realm of the spirit into this natural realm. Faith goes into the spiritual world, lays hold of what is already there and manifests it in the natural world of matter. Hebrews 11:1 says it this way: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Now, I'm not just taking Kenneth's word for it! He actually tried it, and it works! He decided when he was young that he wanted to preach the Gospel:
So I began to say it. I stood in my living room and declared, “I’ll preach that Jesus is Lord. I’ll preach that Jesus saves. I’ll preach that He baptizes in the Holy Ghost and heals. I’ll preach that He is our financier, the Lord of the Harvest, and the soon-coming King. And I’ll preach it from the top of the world to the bottom, and all the way around the middle!”
But he had a problem:
Then it dawned on me. I can’t do that without an airplane!
Absolutely! No serious preacher of the Gospel can afford to be without an airplane. And, of course, Kenneth got that airplane by sending his servant to bring it down from heaven for him! (Yes, all these things are in heaven, waiting for us - arms, legs, airplanes. Just ask anyone who's taken a trip to heaven and come back again to tell us about it.)
So what am I to make of this "contradiction"? I know Kenneth Copeland and Paula White are preachers of the Word. They simply
can't be contradicting each other! Hmmm! I wonder what the Gospel of Jesse Duplantis says...
Labels: Kenneth Copeland, Paula White
