Heresies in the church - Part 5

Since the WOF preachers believe that Jesus died spiritually, acquired a satanic nature in hell and therefore had to be saved in hell, it is quite natural for them to also believe that Jesus had to be born again!

Born again?

Let's hear what these preachers teach. Kenneth Copeland has the following: "See you have to realize that He (Jesus) died; you have to realize that He went into the pit of hell as a mortal man made sin. But He didn't stay there, thank God. He was reborn in the pit of Hell and resurrected." [1] "...that 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 come back to life. He began to look like something the Devil had never seen before. He was literally being reborn before the Devil's very eyes. He began to flex his spiritual muscles....Jesus was born again--the first born from the dead." [2] "'They crucified Me for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in Me.'" [3] "And the whole New Testament calls Him the first-born....The word 'born' began to ring in my spirit; it just began to roll around: born, born. I never had let Him go through that in my own thinking....And while I was laying there thinking about these things, the Spirit of God spoke to me. And He said, 'Son, realize this: Now follow Me in this, 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. I said, 'What?' He said, 'A born-again man defeated Satan. The first-born 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, 'You don't mean--you couldn't dare mean, that I could have done the same thing?' He said, 'Oh, yeah, if you'd had the knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could have done the same thing, 'cause you're a reborn man, too.'" [4]

Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland's wife said: "After Jesus was made sin, He had to be born again. [quote of Ac 13:33 KJV] What day? The first part of the verse explains 'this day' as the day He raised Jesus from the dead. God raised Him up and liberated Him from the pains of death. He was made alive in the spirit or justified in the spirit (1 Timothy 3:16; Acts 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18, The Amplified Bible [The Multiple Choice Bible]) Once again, He was the righteousness of God and, once again, eternal life was His nature. Let the picture of the Firstborn from among the dead become a reality in your spirit and mind: Jesus was not only a being with God's nature and God's Spirit, but also the man that said, 'Behold my hands, and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have' (Luke 24:39). And it was written of Him, 'For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus is a born-again man. He came from death back into life. (This is the same new birth that the good news of the gospel still offers to any man who will accept it.)" [5]

Benny Hinn continues the trend: "My, you know, whoosh! The Holy Ghost is just showing me some stuff. I'm getting dizzy! I'm telling you the truth--it's, it's just heavy right now on me....He's (referring to Jesus) in the underworld now. God isn't there, the Holy Ghost isn't there, and the Bible says He was begotten. Do you know what the word begotten means? It means reborn. Do you want another shocker? have you been begotten? So was he. Don't let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. You say, 'What are you talking about?' ...He was reborn. He had to be reborn. ...If He was not reborn, I would never be reborn. How can I face Jesus and say, 'Jesus you went through everything I've gone through, except the new birth?'" [6]

"Begotten" simply means "to be born," NOT "reborn." When the Bible speaks of the "only begotten of the Father" it emphasises Christ's pre-eminence and unique nature. In Hebrews 1:5 when God says "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee" it is simply a reference to the resurrection of Christ.

Kenneth Copeland continues: "It is important for us to realize that a born again man defeated Satan....Colossians 1:18 refers to Jesus as the firstborn from the dead....He was the first man to be reborn under the new covenant." [7]

Why is it so important for the Faith-Teachers to ignore such explicit passages as "It is finished," etc? Why must they have Jesus dying spiritually as well as physically, entering hell as a mortal man capable of failure, and being born again to defeat the devil? The reason is that the faith teachers have a diminished view of Jesus. When Jesus is downplayed as nothing more than an anointed man, it brings the faith teachers up to the level of Jesus.

In this way the gospel message of "repent you wretched sinner and plead for God's forgiveness. Find salvation and rest from your sin and guilt at the foot of the cross of your great and mighty and blessed Saviour," is falsified by a wicked stench of a message that says "You shall be like God!"

How do the WOF teachers respond when someone points out their false doctrines?

A classical example of such a response is from Paul Crouch, the head of TBN: "I think God's given up on a lot of that old rotten Sanhedrin religious crowd, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I think they're damned and on their way to hell and I don't think there's any redemption for them...the heresy hunters that want to find a little mote of illegal doctrine in some Christian's eye and pluck that little mote out of their eye when they've got the whole forest in their own lives and in their own eyes. I say to hell with you! Oh hallelujah. Get out of God's way, quit blocking God's bridges or God's gonna shoot you if I don't! I refuse to argue any longer with any of you out there. Don't even call me. If you want to argue doctrine, if you want to straighten out somebody over here, if you want to criticize Ken Copeland for his preaching on faith, or Dad Hagin. Get out of my life! I don't even want to talk to you or hear you. I don't want to see your ugly face! Get out of my face in Jesus' name." [8]

As is clear, the WOF preachers are so tightly bound to their heresies that it would be difficult for them to renounce it. It would be either denouncing all or nothing.

In the next installment we will look at how these false teachers deify mankind!

See the previous post in the series here.

Just thinking...

End Notes

[1] K. Copeland, "What Happened From the Cross to the Throne" (audiotape) Fort Worth, Texas, K. Copeland Ministries, 1990 #02-0017 or 00-0303.

[2] K. Copeland, "The Price Of It All", Believer's Voice of Victory 19, 9 Sept. 1991; p4-6.

[3] Kenneth Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory Magazine, Volume 15 Issue 2, February 1987.

[4] Kenneth Copeland, "What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" tape # 02-0017.

[5] Gloria Copeland, "God's Will For You", Harrison House, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Revised 1994, Reprinted 2000, p24-25.

[6] B. Hinn, "Our Position in Christ, Part 1", Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Centre, 1991, videotape # TV-254

[7] K. Copeland, "Jesus Our Lord of Glory", Believer's Voice of Victory, April 1982, p3.

[8] Paul Crouch, "Praise-a-thon" broadcast on TBN, recorded 4/2/91.