Dear everyone, This is a mail I got... I dont know how true it is. I am sorry it is a bit long but please do go through it and if some of you can explain if this is really true or is just made up... pls do. I personally do not like to put down these people since I am ignorant of the situation and this may be wrong... so whoever knows.. pls do enlighten... whether it is true and to what extent... Waiting for inputs... thanks... Love and prayers, Rosemary (Goa)
Health, Wealth and Heresy When you switch on to the “Miracle” or “God” Channels on television, listen with your head and heart to know how the truth is being distorted We look at the subtle dangers of watching TBN (“Miracle Channel”) on TV, we shall look at some ofthe fundamental errors in the beliefs and teachings of some of the so called “Televangelists”. Many viewers find it difficult to believe that these “anointed men of God” could teach anything other than pure Biblical Christianity. All we ask of readers is, rather than assess the truth of the faith by what is said by a so called “man of God”, you assess the “man of God” and his teaching by the truth of Holy Scripture. Even without reference to Catholic Tradition, but only Scripture, their errors are obvious. One by-product of the communications revolution is the increased use of television for evangelisation. Most people do not know it, but the Catholic Church pioneered the use of the electronic media in those days, mainly radio and to a lesser extent television to reach millions with the Good News of God’s love and salvation shown in His Son Jesus. Bishop Fulton Sheen was the first and most popular radio and TV evangelist, and arguably the best in terms of sound content and an ability to lift the faith of his audience. His loyal audience and viewers included not only Catholics, but even other Christians and Jews! It’s a different story today. Television evangelism seems to be dominated by neo-Pentecostal fundamentalists who, because of their emphasis on faith, healing and praying in tongues, are mistaken for charismatic. They are not. Many of these preachers have deliberately disguised themselves as charismatics, to gain some legitimacy, and have tarnished the reputation of the Charismatic Renewal. Where does the problem lie? The basic problem is in the beliefs of this school of preachers/teachers/healers. Conservative Christians would have no hesitation in saying that they have departed from Christianity, and some have imported elements from non-Christian belief systems that are incompatible with Christianity. In the process, some of the very basic articles of the Christian Faith have been deserted and substituted. These include the Trinity, the nature of God, the Creator-creature relationship, Jesus, salvation, and the covenant. I shall quote some of the teachings of these so-called evangelists and teachers, to show how unsafe it is for any sincere Christian Catholic or not to listen to them. The source of every quotation will be given. Most of the references date back to a decade ago. But none of the so called evangelists have ever retracted and corrected their false teaching. On the contrary, they maintain that they have always been teaching “God’s Word”. The Trinity: Although the network has been named after the Trinity, the Trinity is one of the first faith casualties in the strange theology of Paul Crouch, founder of TBN. He has supported the United Pentecostal Church, a cult which calls the Trinity a pagan doctrine. He agreed “one million billion per cent” that to break unity with those who deny the Trinity is “a work of the devil”. (“Praise the Lord”, TBN 5.9.91 ). Of those who object to such heresy, Crouch has said, “I think they’re damned and on their way to hell; and I don’t think there’s any redemption for them”. (Quoted in Los Angeles Times, 29.9.91) Claiming to speak “under the anointing” of the Holy Spirit, Benny Hinn has distorted the Trinity: “I feel revelation knowledge already coming on me here... Holy Spirit, take over in the name of Jesus... God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person; and He is a triune being by Himself separate from the Son and the Holy Ghost... 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. If I can shock you and maybe I should there’s nine of them”. (TBN 3.10.90). The Origin of God. According to Kenneth Copeland, earth is “a copy of the Mother Planet. Where God lives, he made a little one just like his, and put us on it”. (Audio tape “Following the Faith of Abraham I”). Charles Capps, “ordained” a minister by Kenneth Copeland says, “God filled His words with faith to cause the things He said to come into manifestation”. So God has faith? In whom? According to Copeland, “Faith is a power force... a tangible force...” (“The Force of Faith”). Capps adds, “Faith is the substance, the raw material ... that God used to create the universe” (“Changing the Seen and Shaping the Unseen”). A Little God called Man. Speaking of the creation of man, Capps says, “The word ‘likeness’ in the original Hebrew means ‘an exact duplication in kind’. Adam was an exact duplication of God’s kind!” (“Authority in Three Worlds”). According to Benny Hinn, Adam was “the first superman... Adam not only flew, he flew to space... with one thought he would be on the moon” (“Praise the Lord” TBN, 26.12.91). Copeland has more on Adam, who “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’” (“Sensitivity of Heart”, KCP Publications). God expelled! Most of the Word Faith “evangelists” have been moulded in the pattern of Kenneth Hagin, who got most of his beliefs from E.W. Kenyon. Kenyon taught that “the believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus”. According to Kenyon, “Adam had a legal right to transfer his dominion and authority to the enemy. God has been obliged ... to recognise Satan’s legal standing, and legal right and authority. On this ground only can we understand the legal side of the Plan of Redemption” (“The Father and His Family”). A Comeback Covenant. Copeland says that God, legally expelled from the earth, “had no avenue for lasting faith or moving in the earth. He had to have a covenant with somebody... He had to be invited in, or He couldn’t come. In order to have any say so on earth, He’s gonna have to be in agreement with a man here” (God’s Covenants with Man 11). “God needed an avenue back into earth... Since man was the key figure in the fall, man had to be the key figure in the redemption, so God approached Abram. He re-enacted with Abram what Satan had done with Adam except that God didn’t sneak in and use deception... God offered Abram a proposition and Abram bought it”. (Copeland,“Our Covenant With God”). Benny Hinn explains, God “could not touch the earth till a man gave it back to Him” (Sermon at World Charismatic Conference, Anaheim, 7.8.92). Creflo Dollar said, on a programme beamed to India very recently, that because Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, God was covenant bound! to offer His Son in exchange. Jesus according to this school, was only a spoken word. It was God’s “positive confession” of a Messiah to come, that resulted in the Incarnation. “Once that covenant [with Abraham] was established, God began to release His Word into the earth. He began to paint a picture of a Redeemer, a man who would be the manifestation of His Word in the earth” (Copeland, “The Power of the Tongue”, 9). “The angels spoke the words of the covenant to Mary. She pondered them in her heart, and those words became the seed. And the Spirit of God hovered over her and generated that seed, which was the Word that the angel spoke to her. And there was conceived in her, the Bible says, a holy thing. The Word literally became flesh”. (KC Ministries, audiotape No.01 4405, side 2) Salvation was won, according to this school, not by God incarnate on the cross, but by a man ‘born again’ in the depths of hell. Copeland says, “Why does God have to pay the price... ? He has to have a man like that first one (Adam). 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” (“The Incarnation”, audio tape No.010402). According to Kenyon, the originator of this warped thinking, “His [Jesus’) body did not become mortal until the Father laid our sin nature upon Him... on the cross. The moment that He became sin, His body became mortal, only then could He die. When this happened, spiritual death, the nature of Satan, took possession of His Spirit... Jesus knew that the moment had come, and He was to be made sin... He must partake of that dread nature of the Adversary... Satan would become His master. He had been lifted up as a serpent. Serpent is Satan. Jesus kn! ew He was going to be lifted up, united with the Adversary”. (“What Happened from the Cross to the Throne”}. That is why Copeland says, “Satan conquered Jesus on the cross”. Warming to this theme, Benny Hinn says, “Jesus Christ knew the only way He would stop Satan is by becoming one in nature with him... He did not take my sin; He became my sin. Sin is the nature of Hell... He became one with the nature of Satan, so all those who had the nature of Satan can partake of the nature of God”. (TBN, I5.12.90). Jan Crouch of TBN approvingly recited from “Destined for the Throne” by Paul Billheimer, “Because He was ‘made sin’, impregnated with sin, and became the very essence of sin, on the cross He was banished from God’s presence as a loathsome thing. He and sin were made synonymous... The Father turned Him over... to the satanic torturers... As long as Christ was ‘the essence of sin’ he was at Satan’s mercy” (TBN 20.8.87). Redemption, they say, is worked by a technicality: God tricked Satan into dragging Jesus to hell although He was sinless. “Satan was holding the Son of God there illegally... The trap was set for Satan and Jesus was the bait”. (Copeland, “Walking in the Realm of the Miraculous”). “The Devil forgot to take into consideration that Jesus hadn’t sinned Himself, but had merely become sin as a result of the sin of others”. (Copeland, “What happened from the Cross to the Throne“). Having demoted Jesus, they deify man. Kenneth Hagin says, “Man... was created on terms of equality with God... God made us as much like Himself as possible... He made us the same class of being as Himself...” (Zoe: “The God Kind of Life”) Paul Crouch amplified this : “I am a little god. I have this name. I’m one with him. I’m in covenant relation. I am a little god! Critics be gone!” (“Praise the Lord”, TBN 7.7.86). Benny Hinn is eqaually emphatic : “Don’t tell me you have Jesus. you are everything he was and everything he is and ever will be.... The new man says ‘I am a little messiah ... You are a little god on earth ...’” (TBN 16.11.90). And the final word from Kenneth Copeland : “When I read in the Bible where he says, ‘I Am’ I just smile and say, ‘Yes, I Am, too’”. (“The Believer’s Voice of Victory” Broadcast 9.7.87) Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now =============================================================================== This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. For more info on the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet To unsubscribe from the list send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet/join In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===============================================================================
